cOUR VIRGINIA 

E* Ehrlich Smith 



^ STATES PUBLISHING COMPANY 

RICmiONP, VIRGINIA 



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OUR VIRGINIA 

A DESCRIPTION OF VIRGINIA 
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 

BY 

E. EHRLICH SMITH 

AUTHOR OF 

•TEACHING GEOGRAPHY BY PROBLEMS ' AND ‘ THE HEART OF THE CURRICULUM,” 

DRAWINGS BY 
FREDERIC H. SPIGEL 


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STATES PUBLISHING COMPANY 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 



















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Copyrighted, 1923 
by 

States Publishing Company 
Richmond, Virginia. 


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MAY -7 '23 


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PREFACE 


To the Boys and Girls 
of Virginia: 

Before you read this book, you 
should ask yourself the question, 
What do I know about iny own 
state? There are many people 
who know very little about their 
state. The reason is that they 
have never taken the trouble to 
find out about it. 

Virginia is worth knowing*. It 
is a grand place in which to live. 
There are more than two millions 
of us here; and there are more 
than a half million boys and girls 
who go to school. What you 
will read about in this book will 
tell you how we work and how 
we play; what things we do and 
why we do them. 

Almost everybody in our state 
is American-born and American- 


bred. The early colonists of Vir¬ 
ginia were the hrst Americans. 

This book is not a history of 
what has happened in Virginia, 
l)ut it is a story of and pictures 
about what we are now doing. 
For the pictures in this book 
thanks are due Hon. Geo. W. 
Koiner, Commissioner of Agri¬ 
culture ; Colonel C. P. Hasbrook, 
General Manager of the Rich¬ 
mond “Times-DispatchMr. 
T. Gilbert Wood, Industrial 
Agent of the Norfolk and West¬ 
ern Railway Company; Mr. K. 
T. Crawley, Manager of the 
Ag'ricultural and Industrial De¬ 
partment of the Chesapeake and 
Ohio Railway Company; and Mr. 
W. P. Muller, Richmond Mana¬ 
ger of the L. C. Smith Type¬ 
writer Company. 


Before this book was printed, 
many boys and girls read the 
stories after they had been type¬ 
written . Thanks are due these 
children, for, by doing this, they 
helped me to write better stories. 

You may want to learn much 
more about Virginia than this 
little book will tell you. When 
you get to the place in the book 
where vou want to know more 
than it tells you, ask somebody— 
mother, father, or teacher. You 
can also get much information 
about our state by writing to 
Hon. George W. Koiner, Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture, and 
asking* him to send you the 
“Handbook of Virginia’’ and the 
“Yearbook.” The “Handbook” is 
illustrated, and tells you a great 
deal that all of us should know. 
You can get information about 
any city by writing to the Cham¬ 
ber of Commerce of that city; 
the “Handbook” gives you in¬ 
formation about the counties. 
The railroads, also, will be glad to 
help you, if you write to them. 


There are several departments of 
the state which get out bulletins 
which will interest you. These 
are the Department of Game and 
Inland Fisheries, the Department 
of Health, and the State Library, 
which also furnishes books. You 
may also get valuable informa¬ 
tion from the Co-operative Edu¬ 
cation Association of Virginia. 
The address of this department 
is Richmond. In “The World 
Almanac” and in boys’ and girls’ 
encyclopedias there are facts 
about our state. 

The Highway Commission 
gets out “road maps” of the high¬ 
way system, and the “Handbook” 
contains a map of our state. You 
can buy a blackboard stencil map 
from the Educational Publishing 
Company, 18 East 17th St., New 
York City. Maps are also 
printed in this book to help you 
when you read. 

E. EHRLICH SMITH 

Richmond, Virginia, 

February 19, 1923. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I WHY WE TRADE . 1 

II SOME FRIENDS THAT HELP US . 7 

III TIDEWATER VIRGINIA . 11 

IV COMMERCE . 17 

V THE EASTERN SHORE . 31 

VI CITIES AT THE HEAD OF TIDEWATER . 37 

VII MIDDLE VIRGINIA . 45 

VIII PIEDMONT VIRGINIA . 57 

IX THE VALLEY OP VIRGINIA . 65 

X IN THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS . 75 

XI 4NIMALS WE FIGHT TODAY . 89 

XII NATURE’S GIFTS TO VIRGINIA . 95 

XIII GOVERNMENT AND POPULATION . 113 

XIV CONCLUSION . 117 





















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OUR VIRGINIA 


CHAPTER 1. 


WHY WE 

1 < 

Early Life in Virginia 

When Captain John Smith and 
his men came to Jamestown 
Island, they found it to be the 
home of the Indians. No one 
knows how long the Indians had 
been living there. Captain John 
SmithN party found the Red 
Men living in wigwams made of 
long- poles and covered with 
skins of animals. These wig¬ 
wams were easily taken down 
and moved. This was done 
every season of the year. 

Indians did not need nearly so 
many things as did the English. 
They wore moccasins instead of 
shoes. From the skins of wild 
animals they made clothes. They 
made coarse blankets with the 
hair of wild animals. 

In winter the Indians moved 
into sheltered places in the for¬ 
ests. In* the spring they chose 


TRADE 

Helds where corn could be 
planted. In the fall they went 
to their hunting grounds. 

The men spent their time in 
hunting, Hshing, and Hghting. 
The women stayed in the villages 
where they worked. They 
planted corn, harvested it, and 
ground it into meal. They 
dressed the skins of the animals 
which the men had killed. They 
also gathered oysters. 

Indian boys did not have to do 
any work, nor did they g'o to 
school. They had never seen a 
l)ook. They learned lessons from 
their fathers about many things. 
They learne^d to know where to 
look for birds and animals, and 
how to shoot them. When the In¬ 
dian boy was twelve years old he 
learned to build a canoe out of 
tree bark, and to paddle swiftly 
and silently up and down the 
streams. 


2 


OUR VIRGINIA 


Indian girls were taught by 
their mothers to cut and carry 
wood, to plant corn and tobacco, 
to cook and sew, and to keep the 
wigwam in order. This last was 
not hard to do because the floor 
was nothing but dirt, and it was 
never swept. The beds were 
made of animal skins, spread 
over the ground. The dishes 
were either wooden or earthen 
jars. 

The children had to gather 
wild strawberries and other 
fruits. Indian babies had few 
toys. They had rattles and 
strings of colored shells. The 
boys made their own toys with 
stones and sticks. They liked 
best to play with bows and 
arrows. They played that they 
were fighting, hunting, and fish¬ 
ing. 

When the white men came to 
Virginia, they had never seen any 
tobacco or corn. IRit the In¬ 
dians taught them to use both. 
The white men knew many 
things the Indians had never 
dreamed of. They had been used 
to fine clothes made of wool, cot¬ 
ton, and silk. They wore shoes 
which were made of leather. 


They wore hats which were made 
of felt. They were used to living 
in houses made of planks and 
bricks. The white men brought 
guns with them. The Indians 
used only bows and arrows. The 
settlers also made beautiful 
trinkets out of gold, silver and 
iron. 

When the white men first 
came, there were no houses, no 
churches, no schools, and no 
stores. Each man had to build 
his own home, make a part of 
his furniture, raise his crops, 
hunt, and fish. 

The first houses were built of 
logs. The cracks were filled with 
mud, and the windows were 
made with oiled paper. The 
floors were covered with clean, 
dry sand. There were no stoves. 
Large fireplaces took up one side 
of the room. All the cooking 
was done over the coals in the 
fireplace. They made their own 
candles and these gave all the 
light they had. Sheep furnished 
wool for cloth, and for the yarn 
which was knit into stockinsrs. 

The first schools were kept in 
log cabins. While the' women 


WHY WE TRADE 


3 



cooked and sewed, they taught 
the children. There were only a 
few books and no magazines or 
papers like you enjoy. 

The children had little time for 
playing games, and they had very 
few toys. The girls had rude 
dolls of wood and rags. The boys 
made their own kites, tops, balls, 
marbles, pop-guns, willow whis¬ 
tles, bows and arrows, slings, and 
traps. 

The Indians stored up corn for 
the winter, and some of this the 
white men bought for knives, 
bits of cloth, and other things. 
Indians did not want very much, 
—only guns, powder, whiskey, 
and trinkets. The white men 
wanted the Indians’ tobacco and 
the land on which they hunted 
and fished. The Indians did not 
know how to make furniture, 
carpets, silverware, wagons, and 


other things. That is why the 
white men did not trade much 

with them. 

The white men were not happy 
to live like this, so they kept 
sending back to England for 
many things. They sold cotton 
and tobacco to England and 
bought furniture, iron ploughs, 
clothes, and other things. Many 
years later they were able to 
build nice homes and to buy fur¬ 
niture, tools, dishes, silverw^are 
and weapons. Some of the old 
Virginia homes were very beau¬ 
tiful, and a few are standing to¬ 
day. Each large home was the 
center of a plantation. On the 
plantation were raised the vege¬ 
tables, fruits, grain, hogs, sheep, 
and cattle that w^ere needed. 
What they did not need they 
shipped to England and traded 



These boys and girls belong to a Pig Club 
in Pulaski County. They contest for 
prizes by raising pigs. 











4 


OUR VIRGINIA 


for things that they did need. 

Life To-day in Virginia 

To-day, Virginia boys and girls 
learn to raise corn and pigs and to 
be helpful on farms. Boys in cities 
and towns have the chance to 
belong to the Boy Scouts. They 
all go to school, where they learn 
many useful things. Indian boys 
did not go to school, nor did 
they help on the farms. They 
were taught to fight. Boy Scouts 


are taught to help others. 

\drginia girls do many noble 
things. They learn to can, pre¬ 
serve, and to help keep their 
homes clean and beautiful. In¬ 
dian girls were not taught to do 
this. Girls in cities can belong 
to the Girl Scouts where they 
learn to be healthy and helpful. 
They all go to school, where 
they have just as good a chance 
as do boys. Indian girls did not 
go to school. 



HENRICO 


Display at Virginia State Fair of canning 
which was done by Girls’ Canning Clubs. 






WHY WE TRADE 


5 



■ ' 









Two Virginia boys who are winners of more prizes for growing corn 
than any other two boys in- the United States. 


You boys and girls enjoy many 
things which Indians boys and 
girls never dreamed of. To-day 
boys have fine toys. They have 
baseballs, footballs, bicycles, 
tops, kites, and marbles which 
are all made in factories. Girls 
have beautiful dolls, doll car¬ 
riages, bicycles, and other ])lay- 
things. These too, are made in 


factories, and they are bought 
from stores with the money 
which your fathers earn. The 
toys and playthings which you 
have were not made in Virginia 
factories. Thev were made in 
other places. Your fathers were 
able to buy these toys for you 
because of the money which was 
paid for the things which are 








6 


OUR VIRGINIA 


raised on our farms and made in 
our factories. Your . fathers 
wanted the toys for you, and the 

people who made the toys wanted 
something in place of them. This 
is what makes people trade. 

With the money which we now 
get by trading we build schools 


and other public buildings, we 
buy pianos and violins and learn 
to know good music, we get 
good doctors, we get engineers 
to lay out parks, to build roads, 
streets, and cities. In these and 
in many other ways we are learn¬ 
ing to live nobler and better 
lives. 


CHAPTER II. 


SOME I'RIENDS TH.Vr HELP US 


Two Things to Do 

Get three tin cans and make 
one hole with a large nail in the 
bottom of each. Fill one can 
half full of sand, one, half full of 
clay, and the other, half full of 
sand and clay mixed in equal 
parts. Then put each can over 
a tumbler. Now pour a tumbler 
full of water into each can. 
Watch the water as it comes 
through the holes in the cans. 
Which kind of soil holds the 
water best? 

Take a fruit jar and hll it half 
full of water. Put in equal parts 
of sand, gravel, clay, and loam 
(sand and clay). Replace the 
cover of the jar and shake well. 
Set the jar aside.* On the next 
day see what has happened. 

Soil 

Rocks are ground into pebbles, 
sand, and clav by water and 
wind. It takes a long time for 
water and wind to grind rocks 
together and make soil out of 
them. Rut after many years 



This is to show you what the ground 
would look like if we could see it in 
this way. 

they do it. All the time this is 
going on, leayes and limbs of 
trees, dead trees, salt, limestone, 
and other things are all brought 
together by water. These mix 
with the pebbles, sand, and clay. 
Brooks, streams, and rivers 
carry soil down into the valleys 
and make them rich. 

Plants 

Do you like vegetables? They 
are good for you. Some of the 
vegetables which we eat are dug 
out of the ground. Potatoes, 
turnips, beets, onions, and rad- 





8 


OUR VIRGINIA 



The James River Valley 


ishes bury themselves in the 
ground. While they grow, they 
take in water through their skins. 
If the ground is too hard, it will 
squeeze them to death. These 
vegetables need sandy ground in 
which to grow. Sandy ground 
is not hard like clay. They will 
not'grow in clay ground. When 
the ground is sand and clay 
mixed, these vegetables like it. 
In sand they can spread out as 


they grow. Clay holds water for 
them. Sand does not hold water 
as well as does clay. If plants 
are to grow, they must be planted 
in the kind of soil which they 
like. 

Cabbage, spinach, cauliflower, 
and lettuce send small roots 
down into the ground, but the 
most of these plants—the leaves 
—grow above the ground. That 
is the part we eat. The food 







SOME FRIENDS THAT HELP US 


9 


these plants get from the ground 
is taken in through the roots and 
sent up into the leaves. These 
roots are so tender that they, 
too, need sandy soil to push 
through to get water and food. 
The leaves of these vegetables 
spread out to get water and sun¬ 
shine. The water, the green of 
the plants, sunshine, and air are 
all playmates. 

Peanuts, squash, beans, peas, 
melons, tomatoes, and cucum¬ 
bers grow on vines. They have 
roots, too. But just see how 
much of these plants grows a])ove 
the ground and how little below 
the ground. 



Peanut vines gathered and stacked around 
])oles. Notice how sandy the soil 
is on which they once grew. 


The leaves and stems of all 
these plants are so tender that 


frost, cold weather, and very hot, 
dry weather kill them. 

Corn is a very strong plant. 
It has many roots. When corn 
roots look for water they are 
strong enough to break through 
clay, and even to push aside 
small rocks. For this reason, 
corn can grow on rocky soil or 
on clav soil. The stalk and 
leaves are thick and tough, and 
they can stand cold weather. 

Wheat, oats, rye, and ])arley 
are also very tough. Although 
much smaller plants than corn, 
they have roots which are just 
as strong and stalks which can 
stand even more cold than corn. 
One kind of wheat which is very 
hardy, grows in the winter. 
This is called “winter wheat.’’ 
Much of this grows in the Valley 
of Virginia. Flour, made from 
winter wheat, makes mighty 
g'ood biscuits. Some say winter 
wheat biscuits are better than 
those made from spring wheat. 

Every plant needs the kind of 
soil it likes best to live in. Some 
])lants need sandy soil, some 
clay, some sand and clay, and 
others even rocky soil. Some 





10 


OUR VIRCxTNIA 


plants are tougher than others. 
Plants which can not stand cold 
weather, frost, snow, sleet, and 
storms grow in Tidewater Vir¬ 
ginia. Here they find warm, 
damp air, rain, and sunshine, 
with only a few storms now and 
then to bother them. They also 
enjoy the sandy soil there. 
Plants which are tougher, which 
need colder weather, and which 
grow in rocky and clay soil are 
not found in Tidewater Virginia. 


. The soil and the plants are 
friends that help us in Virginia. 
Without the things they give us 
we could not carry on trade, for 
it is from our farms that we get 
most of the materials for our 
factories and for our trade. 
Enough money is made in a year 
from our farms alone for every 
man, woman, and child in our 
state to receive one hundred 
twenty five dollars. That is why 
the soil and plants are our 
friends. 


CHAPTER TIL 


TIDEWATER VIRGINIA 


Bays and Rivers 

The Chesapeake Bay is a large 
body of salt water. The James, 
York, Rappahannock, and Poto¬ 
mac rivers flow into this bay. 
Onr rivers get wide just before 
they empty into the Chesapeake 
Bay. If you go in a small boat 
along the shores of the Chesa¬ 
peake Bay, you will pass the 
places where these rivers flow in¬ 
to it. But the water is so wide 
that sometimes you do not kno\v 
vou are in the “mouth"’ of a 
river. 

Besides these mouths of rivers, 
you will also sail into many small 
bays and inlets. As you sail 
along the water, you will not see 
a straight coastline, but you 
will wind in and out of river 
mouths, bays, and inlets. 

Tides 

Sometimes you can feel your 
little boat being swept along by 
a strong current of water. Some¬ 
times this current is running out 


of the bay into the ocean. About 
six hours later this current will 
be running in the other direction. 
It will be coming from the ocean 
back into the bay and up the 
mouths of the rivers. When the 
water rushes in and out in this 
way, we say that the tide is 
running. These tides run the 
water in and out far up in the 
rivers, in the small bays, in the 
inlets, and even in the Chesa¬ 
peake Bay itself. When the 
water runs out to the ocean for 
six hours, the water is lower by 
about three feet than it was be¬ 
fore it ran out. All the land 
about the water which has these 
tides is a section of Virginia 
known as Tidewater Virginia. 

Oystering 

During the months which have 
an “r” in their spelling, many 
small boats are out getting oy¬ 
sters. Thousands of these little 
boats go just oflf shore in the 
little bays, inlets, and river 
mouths to the oyster beds. Men 


12 


OUR VIRGINIA 



This man is tongicg oysters. 

use oyster tongs which are let 
clown to the bottom in shallow 
water. Oysters are brought up 
in the tongs. 

After the boats have been 
filled, the oysters are taken 
ashore. Then the shells are taken 
off, and the oysters are packed 
with ice to keep them from spoil¬ 
ing. Then they are again put in 
boats and on trains which haul 
them to cities. To nearby places 
they are shipped in their shells. 

Last year there were enough 
oysters shipped from the Chesa¬ 
peake Tjay to sell two quarts to 
every man, woman, and child in 
our state. The Chesapeake Bay 
furnishes as many oysters as do 
all other places on the coasts of 
the United States. 

The Oyster 

When the oyster is a tiny ani¬ 


mal, its flabby little body floats 
about on top of the water like a 
piece of jelly. As it grows older, 
a shell begins to grow on its 
body. It is not long before the 
oyster and. shell together are so 
heavy that they sink to the bot¬ 
tom. When this happens, the 
oyster is very happy. It fastens 
itself to a rock or to something 
like a rock. Then it opens its 
shell and lets in the salt water. 
In this way, the water brings the 
oyster things to eat. After 
awhile it gets fat, and then it is 
ready to be caught. 

The oysters shell is very rough 
on the outside, but on the inside, 
next to its body, it is very smooth 
and beautiful. The oyster makes 
this smooth, beautiful covering 
inside its shell by sending out 
something to harden and to coat 
it. The inside of an ovster shell 
looks as if it has been covered 
with enamel. 

How Fish are Caught 

The fish which are shipped 
from Norfolk are not caught 
with hook and line. As you sail 
along the winding coast, you will 
see many posts sticking out of 
the water. These posts have 








TIDEWATER VIRGINIA 


13 


very large nets tied to them. 
These nets are put there to catch 
fish. If YOU could see under the 
water, you would see a long, 
straight net, and a round trap 
out at the end like this: 


time. They are taken to shore 
and packed in ice for shipment' 
to cities. 

Tidewater Farms 
If you would sail into one of 
the little bays along the Chesa- 













\ * 

The fish swini along until they 
run into the straight net (marked 
A). Then they follow the net 
into the trap. When they are 
in the trap, they try to get out, 
but they do not have enough 
sense to turn around and swim 
back out. Instead of that they 
keep trying to get through the 
net. At certain times during 
each dav boats are sent out to 
pull in the nets and get the fish. 
Thousands are caught at one 


peake Bay you would see piers 
built out into the water. These 
piers are built for just such a boat 
as you are in. When you tie 
your boat to a pier and get off, 
you may walk down it, for it is 
exactly like a wooden bridge. 
These piers lead you ashore to 
farms on which people raise 
many kinds of vegetables, pea¬ 
nuts, celery, asparagus, peaches, 
apples, cantaloupes, figs, grapes, 
plums, and cherries. 























































14 


OUR VIRGINIA 



The peaches from this tree 
found an easy market in Boston. 

The roads leading away from 
these farms are usually covered 
with oyster shells. This makes 
a very good, hard road. These 
roads wind in and around farms 
which are along the water front 
and further back from the water. 
For many miles along the coasts 
of Tidewater Virginia — all 
around the Chesapeake Ray and 
along the creeks — there are 
many of these farms. This is a 
trucking section. The farmers 
are called truck farmers. Thev 
send what they raise to cities to 
be sold in the city markets. It is 
from these farmers that city 
people get their fresh vegetables 
and fruits. 

Little settlements are made 



These cherries are almost as 
large as half-dollars. 

along the creeks where the water 
is deep enough for boats to go. 

Tidewater Virginia is famous 
because of the Chesapeake Bay, 
where many fine oysters and fish 
are caught and shipped. It is 
also well known because of the 
manv fine truck farms which 
help to supply the people of the 
cities with vegetables and fruit. 



Cantaloupes 










TIDEWATER VIRCxlNIA 


15 



Peanuts 


Here is a picture of a field of 
peanuts near Norfolk. 

A g'reat many peanuts are 
raised in Tidewater Virginia. 
Peanuts are very useful. Over 
one hundred different things can 
be made from them. Some of 
these are milk, cooking oil, salad 
oik candy kisses, flour, breakfast 
foods, cow feed, a floor covering 
like oil cloth, and dyes.” In Tide¬ 
water Virginia more peanuts are 
ground up and roasted than in 
any other state in the United 
States. 

Dismal Swamp and Lake Drummond 

Virginia’s only large body of 
fresh water is Lake Drummond 


which lies in the heart of Dismal 
Swamp. The water of Lake 
Drummond is useful because it 
is so pure. It is the color of am¬ 
ber, because cypress and juniper 
trees which grow in it give it 
this color. It is fifteen miles 
around the lake. 

Dismal Swamp, which sur¬ 
rounds the lake, is full of wild 
animals and trees. Leaves and 
branches have been falling from 
the trees into the water for hun¬ 
dreds of years. In this way beds 
of peat have been made. Peat 
can be dried and used for fuel. 
When you see the swamp, you 
see the way coal was formed 
even up in the mountains where 
swamps once were, but which are 
now dried up. 



Boxes and barrels made from timber which 
came from Dismal Swamp. 










16 


OUR VIRGINIA 


The woodman’s axe is cutting 
down the trees. Out of them are 
made buckets, tubs, shingles, 
barrel-staves, boxes and ship 
timber. It is from these trees 
that farmers who raise and ship 
potatoes and vegetables get their 
barrels and boxes. 



Washington Canal, one of the canals in 
Dismal Swamp to Lake Drummond. 



A home on a Tidewater farm. 





CHAPTER \y. 


COMMERCE 

Large numbers of oysters and 
fish are sent to the citv of Nor- 
folk. Some of them are sold to 
the people of this city, but most 
of the oysters and fish are sent 
from Norfolk on boats and trains 
to other places. Many vegetables, 
peanuts, and fruits are sent to 
Norfolk to be shipped. 

Many large boats come across 
the Atlantic Ocean, between 
Cape Henry and Cape Charles, 
and into the Chesapeake Bay. 

Some of these boats steam into 
the Elizabeth River right up to 
the city of Norfolk, while some 
go to Newport News. Rut these 



Steamships being loaded with coal at the piers of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad. 

To the left a tug is towing a barge. 



At these piers freight is being loaded. 

large boats do not come to get 
oysters, fish, and vegetables. 
They want coal which has been 
l)rought from the mines in the 
mountains. They also want 
lumber which has been cut from 
trees nearby, and especially from 
Dismal Swamp. 















18 


OUR \ORGINIA 


There are many large docks or 

piers for loading ships with coal 

and lumber. Ships which get 

coal usuallv sail out of the bay 
^ • 

into the Atlantic Ocean on their 
way back to Europe or South 
America. These boats are so 
large that a whole train of cars 
of coal can be dumped into them. 
When the bottoms of the coal 
cars are opened, the coal rushes 
through large chutes down into 
the boats. This is done so quickly 
that many of these boats can be 
blled in a day. 

Cotton is raised in the section 
of Virginia south of Norfolk and 



A cotton exhibit at the State Pair. 

along the North Carolina line. 
After it is picked, it is put into 
bales and much of it is sent to 
Norfolk to be shipped. It is 
then made into cotton cloth and 
other useful things. 



A field of cotton near Emporia. 




COMMERCE 


19 


The Calico’s Story 

Once I was very tiny and all 
covered with a brown coat. I had 
niaii}^ brothers and sisters. We 
lived in the sunny South, and 
were kept huddled close together 
in a strong bag. 

One morning the people who 
lived in the house were up earlier 
than usual. I heard the master 
say: ‘'Tom, you may plant my 
cotton seed to-day.’’ 

Cotton seed was my name, and 
1 wondered if it were better to 
be planted than to be tied up in 
a bag. But while I was thinking, 
Tom picked me up with the 
others. I was soon put into a 
little bed close to a jolly river. 

I loved to listen to the water 
as it laughed on its journey to the 
sea. I wanted to see it, but my 
coat fitted so closely that there 
was no chance. 

But I began to feel larger and 
larger. One day my snug* coat 
split, and I popped right out of 
the ground. Was I not happy, 
then? I had a green body and 
two green leaves. I stretched my 
head higher, and at last I had 
three beautiful blossoms. 

I think I must have been vain. 


for all my beautiful petals left 
me to go with Mr. Wind. I 
mourned for them every day, 
but, to my surprise, the little 
bolls left by the blossoms burst. 

I was covered with cotton as 
white as snow and las soft as 
silk! 

I was as happy as a queen! . 
The cool wind fanned me. The 
sunbeams came to warm me, and 
the dear old river lulled me to 
rest. I did not need any other 
friends, but I found that I had 
some, soon. 

“Come, children,” I heard 
Aunt Chloe call, “we must pick 
the cotton.” 

And the children did come—a 
dozen woolly heads, and twice 
that number of shining eyes. 
One little fellow cried out: “Oh, 
did you ever see nicer cotton?” 
And in a minute all my white 
was held in his little black fingers. 
Next I was riding in a basket on 
top of Tom’s head. Then I was 
in a cart on my way to the ^^gin.” 

I was sorry as I left the fields, 
and said: “Goodbye, old seed and 
leaves. Goodbye, dear river.” 

When I came to the ''gin,” a 
machine took from my downy 


* By permission of The Youth's Companion. 


20 


OUR VIRGINIA 


grasp many little fellows dressed 
in brown coats. They looked 
just as I did before I went to 
sleep in Mother Earth. 

My next trip was in a bale. I 
was loaded on a big ship which 
sailed on a great sea. I liked this 
bale and the ride. It made me 
think of the river where I used 
to live. 

By and by the ship stopped. 

I was carried to a large house 
where I heard “buzz, buzz, buzz.’’ 
So many strange things hap¬ 
pened to me that I wondered 
what would be the end of it all. 
I was cleansed, and twisted, and 
spun, and woven, and bleached. 
At last I found that I had become 
white cloth. 

One thing I enjoyed here was 
the old river that rushed along. 
It turned heavy wheels that made 
the spindles buzz and the shuttles 
fly. 

My next journey was through 
a printing machine. At first I 
was white. But this machine 
sent me under a roller which left 
little bunches of red cherries all 
over me. Then I went under an¬ 
other roller which put green 
stems on the cherries, and left 


green leaves close to the stems. 
A third roller left brown twigs 
where all the stems and leaves 
ought to hang. Prettier bunches 
of fruit you never saw. 

Now my white was almost 
gone, but what was left was 
made black by a fourth roller. 

I went under these rollers so 
quickly—a mile an hour—that I 
could not see very much. But I 
know that cherries were cut in¬ 
to the first roller, and they had 
red dye on them. The leaves and 
stems were cut into the second 
roller, and covered with green 
dye. The twigs were cut into 
the third roller, with brown dye 
all over them. 

I wondered if some of the 
leaves, twigs, and stems might 
not print themselves in the 
wrong place, but they never did. 

After I left the black dye 
roller I was dried, folded, and 
sent to a shop in a noisy city. 
There I lay on a shelf. 

One day a little country girl 
came into the store with a bas¬ 
ket of eggs. She wanted to look 
at me. Just think, she gave the 
shopkeeper all of her eggs for 
eight yards of me. Then I was 




COMMERCE 


21 


made up into a dress, with pretty 
rufdes at the neck and sleeves. I 
gave much joy to the little girl, 
who always liked to wear dainty 
things. 

On her way to and from school 
she used to sit upon a log to rest. 
Here I used to watch the plants 
which grew near, but they were 
very unlike my old self. They 
did not grow in a warm country. 
What I enjoyed most of all was 
a river which flowed near and 
sang the same song as my old 
friend had sung. 

Hampton Roads 

There is a large, beautiful body 
of water between Norfolk and 
Newport News. This water is 
called Hampton Roads. It is a 
favorite place for the ships of our 
navy. Sometimes fifty or more 
foreign steamships and our 
battleships may be seen in Hamp¬ 



The first lightliouse in the United States 
for guiding air pilots. 


ton Roads, as well as sail boats 
and barges. 

The first lighthouse in . the 
United States built for men who 
drive aeroplanes, called air pilots, 
is at Hampton Roads. The 
powerful searchlights can be seen 
by the pilots at a height of six 
miles. By means of this they can 
make safe landings at night. 



James River water-front at Newport News. 











22 


OUR VIRGINIA 


Tidewater Cities 

Because Hampton Roads is 
such a line harbor for ships, a 
number of cities have grown up 
around it. The largest of these 
is Norfolk. It is here that ships 
can get cotton, coal, and many 
other things to carry far away 
across the ocean. Because - of 
this, it is a well known city. This 
kind of city is called a '‘seaport,’’ 
because it is a city by or near 
the sea or ocean. 

Norfolk is in touch with the 
West by means of the Norfolk 
and Western, the Virginian, and 
Chesapeake and Ohio railroads; 
with the North, by the New 
York, Philadelphia, and Norfolk 
railroad ; and with the South by 
means of the Seaboard Air Line, 
the Southern, and the Norfolk- 
Southern railroads. 

Steamship lines connect Nor¬ 
folk with Baltimore, Washing¬ 
ton, and the inland cities; also 


with northern cities and with 
foreign lands. The Albermarle 
and Chesapeake Canal and the 
Dismal Swamp Canal connect 
Norfolk waters with the bays and 
sounds of North Carolina. It is 
through these, too, that cotton, 
fish, shingles, staves, juniper 
logs, railroad ties, and lumber 
are sent to Norfolk. 

Not far from Norfolk are two 
summer resorts,—Virginia Beach 
and Ocean View. Automobiles 
and electric cars can reach these 
places in a short while. Virginia 
Beach is on the Atlantic Ocean, 
and Ocean View looks out on the 
Chesapeake Bay. 

Below is a picture of the harbor 
at Norfolk. The word "harbor” 
means a place to rest. Ships 
which have been out on the 
ocean are glad to get to this 
beautiful harbor. Here they can 
rest and get ready to sail away 
again. There are four boats in 






COMMERCE 


23 


the picture. Two of the boats 
are anchored. One of these is a 
small sail boat with two masts. 
The other is a battleship, which 
has gotten coal for its engines. 
The boat nearest your eye runs 
up the Chesapeake Bay to Balti¬ 
more and back again. It carries 
passengers and freight. The boat 
on the left, in full sail, is loaded 
with oysters. Over in the dis¬ 
tance you can see the city of 
Norfolk. 


the offices of the people who 
manage the boats which load and 
unload at Norfolk. Boats which 
come into Norfolk for coal have 
to pay much money for it. This 
money is put into banks. Far¬ 
mers and fishermen want to be 
paid money for what they bring. 
The money with which to pay 
them comes from banks. 

Just across the Elizabeth River 
from Norfolk is Portsmouth. 
This city has a splendid harbor 



This is an airplane picture of which is suited for the largest 
a part of Norfolk. In the build- vessels. The United States has 
ings you see in this picture are a fine navy yard and hospital for 













24 


OUR VIRGINIA 


sailors here. Many thousands of 
people are employed in oTowing 
truck vegetables for market, 
and in planting and harvesting- 
oysters. 

Newport News is ten miles 
from Norfolk; but to go there 
from Norfolk you have to ride on 
a ferrv boat. 

m' 

Boats, like automobiles and 
engines, get out of order and 
have to be fixed. When they 
leak or have to be painted, they 
are run out of the water so men 
can get to the bottom of the 




To get from one place to another, especially 
between cities, ferry boats are used. 


boats. \ ery large boats have to 
be fixed, too. They get out of 
order as well as do the little 
ones. These large boats are run 
into a dry dock. When they get 


Dry docks, where large boats are repaired. 



















COMMERCE 


25 



The shipyard at 

/ 

into the dry dock, the water is 
let out and huge gates keep the 
water from running back. 

Many ships are made at New¬ 
port News. Some of the largest 
battleships of our navy and large 
ocean steamers have l)een built 
here. Only New York and New 
Jersey build more ships than 
does Virginia. 

At Hampton is the ^National 
Home where old and disabled 
soldiers live. There is also a 
famous school for negroes here. 
It is called Hampton Institute. 


Newport News. 

Phoebus is a town nearby, and 
Old Point Comfort is the home 
of Fortress Monroe, a beautiful 
spot, and once important for de¬ 
fence of our coast. Since we now 
have battleships and destroyers, 
the fortress is now used as a 
place to train soldiers. Buckroe 
Beach, a seashore resort, is only 
two miles away. 

In the counties west of the 
Chesapeake Bay there are few 
towns. Suffolk, in Nansemond 
County, is a point at which 
several railroads cross on their 



26 


OUR VIRGINIA 


way to Norfolk. Much manu¬ 
facturing, especially of peanuts, 
is done here. Lumber is shipped 
from Suffolk. Williamsburg;, in 
James City County, is a town 
that is well known in history. 
Smith held, in Isle of Wight 
County, is famous for its hams, 
and has a large peanut factory 
where peanuts are cleaned and 


made ready for market. At 
Yorktown, on the York River, 
was fought the last battle of the 
Revolutionary W a r , when 
George Washington defeated the 
English general. Lord Corn¬ 
wallis. In the deep water here at 
the mouth of the York River, the 
United States kept many of our 
hghting ships during the World 



Hampton: See how level and flat the land is. 
Notice the concrete walls and the creeks. 










COMMERCE 


27 


War. This was done because 
they could make a quick trip 
against the German ships if they 
needed to do this. From West 
Point, in King William County, 
and on the York River, a regular 
line of boats runs to and from 
Raltimore. Near West Point, in 
Indian Town, there is now a 
small tribe of Pamunkey Indians, 
who are said to be great-grand¬ 
sons and great-granddaughters 
of Powhatan’s tribe of Indians. 

These Indians still hunt deer, 
rabbits, wild turkeys, soara and 
other birds. Each Thanksgiving 
their chief brings the governor 
a fine turkey and gifts of game 
and fish. 

Visitors to Virginia 

The family were all at the din¬ 
ner table. John was telling his 
father that he knew that a great 
deal of coal and lumber was 
shipped from Hampton Roads to 
foreign countries. 

^^Do you know that we have to 
get many things from foreign 
countries, John? Some are right 
here at this table,” said his 
father. ‘^Do you know where 
the chinaware came from which 


we are using? If you children 
will look on the bottom of each 
piece you will see a stamp which 
will tell you where it was made.” 

The children looked, and each 
child cried in turn: ‘‘This saucer 
was made in England;” “This 
was made in Japan;” ‘‘Mine was 
made in Austria;” “Mine, in 
France.” 

“Yes,” said father, “our china 
comes from all of those places. 
Some of it you will find was 
made in this country, too; some 
of the best is made in France.” 

“Where does coffee come 
from?” asked little Mary. 

“Does anybody know?” asked 
father. 

“Yes, sir,” said Lucy, who was 
twelve years old. “It comes from 
South America—from Brazil.” 

“You will be surprised,” said 
father, “to see from how many 
places the food here at this meal 
comes from. Rice comes from 
China, olives from Italy, and 
cheese from Switzerland.” 

“Where did our roast beef 
come from?” asked John. 

“From right here in Virginia,” 
replied his’ father. “And so did 



28 


OUR VIRGINIA 


the sweet potatoes and the flour 
from which our bread is made. 
Your mother made the pickles, 
you know.'’ 

‘‘Did the bananas come from 
Virginia, too?" asked little Mary. 

“No, indeed!" replied John, 
with a laugh. “They are visitors. 
They came from down where it 
is hot all the time." 

“From what place?" asked 
father. “Lucy, do you know?" 

“From Jamaica, I think," re¬ 
plied Lucy. 

“That is right," said her 
father. “But here is'the dessert 
— date pudding — and the nut¬ 
meg. Does anybody know where 
dates come from? Well, they 
come from Arabia, and the nut¬ 
meg comes from Brazil. Dates 
are dried in the sun, packed in 
big straw boxes, placed on the 
backs of camels, and hauled to 
big ships which take them to the 
United States, England, and 
France. 

“Coffee travels a long distance 
to get to us, too. First, it is 
gathered and dried, and then it 
is placed in large, cloth sacks. 
Instead of being loaded on 
camel's backs, coffee is put on 


the backs of little South Ameri¬ 
can burros, which carry it to a 
seaport where the coffee is loaded 
on a ship bound for the United 
States. When it gets here it is 
packed in cans and sent to our 
grocers, where we buy it." 

“Father," asked John, “all fruit 
doesn’t come from Jamaica, does 
it? I know we get some fine 
fruit right here in Virginia." 

“That is rght," said his father. 
“We do get some fine fruit here 
in our state—some of the finest; 
but we do not get grape fruit 
and oranges from Virginia, be¬ 
cause they come from Florida. 
Our raisins come from California. 
We get fine nuts here in Vir¬ 
ginia—pecans, walnuts, and other 
kinds; but almonds come from 
Morocco, which is in Africa." 

“Isn’t hominy made right 
here?" asked Lucy. 

“Yes," proudly replied John, 
“I know that. But our sugar 
comes from Cuba." 

“You see," said father, “how 
many things we have here at the 
table which came from foreign 
countries. They get things from 
us and we get things from them. 
These things are loaded on ships 



COMMERCE 


29 


at seaport cities and sent across 
the ocean. John, you said that 
Norfolk is a great seaport. 'So it 
is; and there are others in our 
country—^New York, Charleston, 
South Carolina, and San Fran¬ 
cisco. Norfolk and other cities 
around it are easy to get to from 
all parts of the world. Hampton 
Roads is a great place, and some 
of these days even more com¬ 


merce will be carried on there. 

''Well, if you are through 
dinner, we will be excused.’’. 

When they left the table they 
walked over rugs which came 
from Persia, and Lucy began 
playing on a piano, the wood of 
which, came from Central 
America. 

"I declare, the world is a busv 
place!” exclaimed John. 


30 


OUR VIRGINIA 



Coastline, rivers, valleys, inoiiiitains and railroads of Virginia. 










CHAPTER V. 

THE EASTERN SHORE 


Large flat boats, called barges, 
carrv trains of cars across the 
Chesapeake Bay from Norfolk 
to Cape Charles. Regular rail¬ 
road tracks are on these barges, 
and the cars are pulled from 
these tracks to the tracks on land. 
The New York, Philadelphia, and 
Norfolk Railroad runs straight 
through the peninsula to north¬ 
ern cities. The cars that are 
carried across the bay on barges 
run on this railroad. 

It is seventy miles from one 
end of this peninsula to the other. 
There are two counties on the 
peninsula. One if Northampton, 
the other, Accomac. The land is 
flat and there are many bays, in¬ 
lets, creeks, streams, and islands 
along the shore. The Atlantic 
Ocean is on one side—the east, 
— and the Chesapeake Bay on 
the other side,—the west. This 
peninsula is called the ^‘Eastern 
Shore of Virginia.” 

The land is very rich. Most of 
the people who live on the East¬ 


ern Shore are truck farmers, 
dliey raise early vegetables and 
farm products — Irish potatoes, 
sweet potatoes, turnips, corn, 
cabbage, onions, strawberries. 



The Eastern Shore. From this map you 
will see that there are no cities on the 
Eastern Shore. But there are large cities 
near it. The Eastern Shore may be called 
“The Garden of Big Cities.” 






32 


OUR VIRGINIA 


and melons. If these products 
are gathered here in the after¬ 
noon, they can be bought next 
morning in Philadelphia, New 
York, and other northern mar¬ 
kets. 



A field of onions. 

In the county of Accomac, 
more sweet potatoes are raised 
than in any other county in the 
United States. Five out of every 
one hundred bushels of sweet 
potatoes raised in the United 
States are grown in Accomac 
County. 

Many Irish potatoes are raised 
on the Eastern Shore. When 
they are ready for harvest, they 
are dug out of the ground, and 
are put into barrels. 

Wagons are loaded with bar¬ 
rels of potatoes and they are 



Berry pickers. 

hauled away to be shipped. 

They are going to ship these 
potatoes to large, northern cities, 
which trains can reach in a few 
hours. 

Many people on the Eastern 
Shore catch and ship fish and 
oysters. Almost all of the soft 
crabs used in the United States 
are caught here. 

In Northampton County, 
sheep, cattle, hogs, and chickens 
are raised. Pine, oak, walnut, 
and hickory trees grow. 

There are many barrel mills on 
the Eastern Shore. These make 
thousands of barrels for the far¬ 
mers. 








THE EASTERN SHORE 


3a 



Gathering potatoes 


on the Eastern Shore. 



Hauling potatoes to be shipped 










34 


OUR X IRGINIA 



• Barrels of potatoes readj'' to the shipped. 


Climate of Tidewater Virginia 

In Tidewater Virginia the land 
is smooth, even, and almost 
level with the sea. If you dig 
into the ground very far you will 
come to water. When houses are 
built it is not easy to keep water 
out of the cellars. In Norfolk 
and other cities, the skyscrapers 
and other large buildings have to 
be built on piles which are driven 
into the ground with a pile- 
driver. 

During the months of May, 
June, July, and August, there is 



Getting ready for winter. 


much rain. If we put a pan out 
in the open to catch all the rain 
that falls during the month of 
May, we will find about five 
inches of .water in it at the end 
of the month. If we kept the pan 
out for a year, it would catch 
about fortv-five inches of water. 
This is what is called the annual 
rainfall. 

The thermometer in Tidewater 
Virginia goes up highest in July 
and August. If we kept a record 
of the temperature for each 
month, this is what it would 
probably he: 


Winter Spring 


Dec. Jan. Feh. Mar. Apr. May 

42 40 40 45 55 65 


Summer Fall 


June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. 

70 72 75 70 60 55 


















THE EASTERN SHORE 


35 


During' the summer months, 
which is the growing season, 
there is much rain. The sun 
draws up water from the ocean 
and the Chesapeake Bay, and the 
winds blow the clouds, filled with 
moisture, over the land where 
they meet the cold air high up in 
the sky. When this happens, it 
usuall}^ rains. Much warm air 
and cool air meet over Tidewater 
Virginia in May, June, July and 
August. When it rains, thirsty 
vegetables, fruits, and trees 
eagerly drink the water. Plenti¬ 
ful rainfall, light soil, and bright 


sunshine, all help to make early 
crops for the farmers in Tide¬ 
water Virginia. The products 
are rushed to citv markets where 
they bring high prices. 

The land is so flat in Tidewater 
Virginia that the rain water does 
not easily run off into the bays 
and inlets. Much of it stands in 
marshes and pools. Mosquitoes 
make their home in this standing 
water. The bites of some mos- 
ciuitoes cause malarial fever. Now 
that we know how to fight mos¬ 
quitoes, we can protect ourselves 
against them. 


36 


OUR VIRGINIA 



The falls in the James River at Richmond, one of the places 
where Tidewater Virginia ends. 



CHAPTER VL 


CITIES AT THE HEAD OF TIDEWATER VIRGINIA 


If Captain John Smith had 
sailed further up the James River 
to make his settlement, he would 
have come to a place where his 
boat could go no further because 
the river gets shallow. Many 
rocks are in it, for the country 
is hilly. Where our rivers tum¬ 
ble down over the rocks there 
are four cities — Richmond, 
Petersburg, Fredericksburg and 
Alexandria. If we should draw 
a north and south line beginning 
at Alexandria and let it pass 
through each of these cities to 
the North Carolina line, the Tide¬ 
water section is on the east, and 
Middle Virginia is on the west 
as far as the foothills of the Blue 
Ridge mountains. Tourists go¬ 
ing from Washington to the 
South travel on the Richmond- 
Washington highway which al¬ 
most makes this line for us. 

Richmond 

Richmond, our capital and 
largest city, is built on seven 


hills. The James River flows 
through the city. 

In the city there are many 
monuments. One of its streets 
is named Monument Avenue be¬ 
cause ofl the monuments erected 
in it. The group of statues in the 
Capitol Square, among which is 
the equestrian statue of George 
Washington, remind us of our 
colonial. Revolutionary, and na¬ 
tional leaders. In and around 
Richmond are monuments of 
Generals Lee, Jackson, Hill, and 
J. E. B. Stuart of the Con- 
federate Army; a monument to 
the Confederate soldiers and 
sailors; and one to Henry Clay. 
In Richmond, also, is the historic 
St. John’s Church. 

The building in Richmond of 
most interest is the Capitol, 
where the governor has his office 
and the State Legislature meets. 
The Confederate Congress had 
its session here during the ‘‘War 
between the States.” In the 


38 


OUR VIRCRNIA 



The statue of Lee on Monument Avenue. 


Capitol Square are the Gov¬ 
ernor’s Mansion and the State 
Library Ihiilding. 

There are many fine hotels in 
the city and people gather in 
Richmond for meetings and con¬ 
ventions. Thousands of tourists 
pass in and out of Richmond, and 
most of them make a tour of the 
city to see the interesting and 
beautiful sights. 

The Confederate Museum and 
the Valentine Museum contain 
relics of historic interest. In 
Battle Abbey there are beautiful 
paintings and portraits. 

The Medical College of Vir¬ 
ginia, the University of Rich¬ 
mond and the Union Theological 
Seminary are large schools in 
the city. Union University is a 
school for negroes. 


Hollvwood Cemeterv is noted 
as the burial place of Presidents 
Monroe and Tyler of the L^nited 
States, and of President Davis of 
the Southern Confederacy. 

Richmond has many factories 
which make thousands of differ¬ 
ent things, with tobacco, iron, 
flour, and wood products leading. 
There are so many different 
kinds of factories in the capitol 
city that the raw materials come 
from all parts of the state and 
from other states and countries 
by boats, railroads, automobiles, 
and wagons. Almost half of the 
tobacco which is grown in Vir¬ 
ginia, North Carolina, and South 
Carolina is made into cigars, 
cigarettes, and chewing tobacco 
in Richmond. 

The first iron manufactured in 




CITIES AT THE HEAD OF TIDEWATER VIRGINIA 39 


the United States was made near 
the city. The first coal mined in 
this country was also mined near 
Richmond. Little of this coal and 
iron is now used, for coal and 
iron are now gotten from the 
mountains. Out of iron, Rich¬ 
mond factories make railroad 
eng'ines, stoves, plows, and many 
other thing's. 

A great deal of wheat which is 
harvested in A^irginia is made in¬ 
to flour in Richmond’s flour mills. 


The hardwood of the mountains, 
the soft pines of Tidewater, and 
the cedar and gum trees of Dis¬ 
mal Swamp are sent to Richmond 
to be made into many different 
articles. Factories which make 
paper bags, blotting paper, chew¬ 
ing* gum, bricks, and many other 
things are located in' Richmond. 

There are six railroad lines 
which come into the citv. Be- 
sides these railroad lines Rich¬ 
mond has the use of boats on the 
James River for shipping. 



The statue of George Washington in the Capitol Square. 















40 


OUR YIRGIMJA 



A part of Richmond. In the front is the Tredegar Iron Works, where the iron plates 
were made for the first iron clad vessel—the Merrimac. State penitentiary is in the center. 


Petersburg 

On the Appomattox River, 
twenty-three miles from Rich¬ 
mond, is Petersl)iiro'. It has a 
large trade of manufactured to¬ 
bacco, and loose-leaf tobacco is 
sold in the city. It has peanut 
factories, trunk factories, and 
other kinds of factories. Several 


railroads pass through the city. 
Steamboats come to its wharves. 
Around Petersburg were foug'ht 
many of the liattles during the 
“War between the States,” and 
earthworks liehind which soldiers 
fought are still seen around the 
city. 





CITIES AT THE HEAD OE TIDEWATER VIRGINIA 41 


Fredericksburg and Alexandria 

Fredericksburg', on the Rappa¬ 
hannock River, is a city which is 
well known in history, because 
the country was also the scene of 
many great battles. It has good 



The river front at Alexandria. 


water power for its flour mills, 
iron foundries, and other fac¬ 
tories. 

Alexandria, on the Potomac 
River, is but seven miles from 
Washington City. It is also 
near Mount Vernon, the home of 
George Washington. Its manu¬ 
factures include brick and fer¬ 
tilizers. 

All these cities are Triver- 
ports,” because they have the use 
of rivers for shipping. 

















3 


42 OUR VIRGINIA 


The Story the Blotting Paper Told 

‘‘Oh, Mother! What a nice 
writing desk,” cried little John 
one Christmas morning, as he 
looked over his presents. “I have 
been wanting one for ever so 

long, and- But where, I 

wonder, did you get this pretty 
green blotter?” he asked as he 
spied a neat, green blotter lying 
upon the desk. “I dreamed last 
night that each of my presents 
told me a story.” 

“We will!” exclaimed the 
presents in a chorus. 

After breakfast John sat down 
and said, “Now, my pretty 
blotter, I want to hear your 
story first.” 

“All right,” replied the blotter. 
“But you must listen well, for 
there are some things that have 
happened to me that you have 
never heard of before.” 

“I was once a dirty rag in a 
junk shop in Egypt,” began the 
blotter. “When I left home I 
was hauled on an ocean steamer 
with other rags, none of whom I 
knew. I was very lonesome, and 
the trip was a long one. After 
several weeks, our boat steamed 
into Norfolk. Then we were 


hauled to Richmond. 

« 

“When we landed there, we 
were all put into a wagon and 
hauled to an old brick house 
which was to be our home for a 
little while. From the windows 
we could see the James River on 
one side and the railroad on the 
other. 

“How long did you stay 
there?” asked John. 

“Oh, not very long,” replied 
the blotter. “After awhile some 
men came along and carried us 
into another room, where we 
were taken from the bale we had 
been strapped in. I certainly 
breathed more easily now. I was 
. then taken to a rough, but kind- 
hearted woman, who cut the but¬ 
tons off of me. After this I was 
put into a large machine, which 
blew all the dust off of me.” 

“What in the world are they 
going to do with us?” asked an¬ 
other rag. 

“I was told that we were go¬ 
ing to be made into blotting 
paper at the biggest blotting 
l)aper factory in this country,” I 
replied. 

“What is the name of this fac¬ 
tory?” it asked. 


* This story was written by Estelle Nance when she was twelve years old and in the 

Powhatan School, Richmond. 



CITIES AT THE HEAD OE TIDEWATER VIRCTNIA 43 


‘‘The Standard Paper Manu¬ 
facturing Company,” I said. 

“Well,” said the other rag. “I 
hope they will make us into 
pretty blotting paper.” 

“Then I was put into another 
machine and cut into shreds. I 
was again dusted and sent on to 
great boilers where I spent ten 
hours in great pain on account 
of the caustic soda which ate me 
into small fibers. On coming out 
of this, I entered the Hollanders, 
which are large tubs with sharp 
knives at the bottom, and the 
water whirled me around and 
around until I was cut so small 
that I hardly knew myself when 
I came out. I was then bleached 
with acid and sent downstairs to 
a large vat where I stayed three 
weeks to drain. 

“On coming out of the vat, I 
was put into a mixture of water 
and green dye, where I was 
thoroughly mixed. I was then 


put on the Foudrinier machine, 
which shakes constantly and 
brings the fibers together away 
from anv waste matter. 

“I was then put on felt rollers, 
where I was pressed together. I 
next passed on to a series of 
rollers, and, on coming out, I 
found myself a dark green 
blotter. 

“Then I was packed with other 
blotters the same size and color 
as myself, and sent away to a 
store, where your mother came 
in and bought me. That is my 
storv,” concluded the blotter. “I 
hope you liked it.” 

“It was a very nice story,” 
said John, “and I thank you very 
much. As it is now rather late 
I will go out and play, but some 
day I shall hear each of your 
stories,” he said, looking happily 
at all of his things. Then he left 
the house and had a long romp 
with Jack, the big shepherd dog. 


44 


OUR VIRGINIA 



The sections of Virginia. 




































































































CHAPTER VII. 


MIDDLE VIRGINIA 



A field in Middle Virginia. 


Tidewater Virginia is a flat 
level section, but Middle Virginia 
is a rolling country. Low hills 
are close to one another, but 
there are no mountains. 

Crops 

While the Indians were living 
in Virginia, woods and forests 


covered the land. When the 
white men came and took the 
land, they cut down the forests. 
On this cleared land they raised 
crop after crop of tobacco to 
send to England where they got 
a good price for it. But they 
soon found that .this not only 
made the land ^^poor,’’ but also 











46 


OUR VIRGINIA 


made the tobacco poor. Then 
man}^ people moved to new land 
near the mountains, where only 
the Indians had been living. 
Again they cut down trees and 
cleared the land for planting to¬ 
bacco. Soon this land also be¬ 
came poor. They did not want 
to go up in the mountains. What 
were they now to do? 

They knew that they could not 
keep on planting tobacco and 
nothing else. So they tried 
planting other things — corn, 
wheat, and vegetables. They 
learned that if they grew clover 
and ploughed it under the ground 
and let the roots rot, this would 
help to make poor land better. 

As soon as they learned these 
things, other crops than tobacco 
were planted and they thrived. 



Fine corn is now raised in Middle 
Virginia. 

After the corn gets ripe it is 
stacked. It is then put away in¬ 
to barns to be used in winter to 
feed cattle and hogs. 

Hay and pea vines are also 
valuable as food for horses and 
cattle. 

Long ago the Indians had 
taught the white men that fish, 
when put under the ground, 
would help to make corn grow. 
There is something in fish bones 
that makes the ground rich. Dif¬ 
ferent things are now mixed in 
factories, and this is sold to far¬ 
mers who spread it over the 
ground to help things grow. It 
is called “fertilizer,’’ and it is 
used a great deal by Virginia 
farmers. There are factories in 
Middle Virginia which make 
large quantities of fertilizer. 

People who live in cities need 
meal, ham, pork, mutton, and 
beef. In Tidewater and in Middle 
Virginia there are seven cities 
and many towns. Railroads run 
through Middle Virginia north 
to Washington, New York, and 
other cities. Boats ply between 
Washington, Baltimore and some 






MIDDLE \aRGINIA 


47 



A fine pea field. 


cities on the rivers of Middle Vir¬ 
ginia. There are millions of 
people in the cities of Virginia 
and elsewhere who must be fed. 

Stock 

Our people eat a great deal of 


meat. It takes large quantities 
of corn, hay, and grass to feed 
the hogs, cattle, and sheep from 
which meat is gotten. Because 
corn, hay, and grass are raised 
so easil}^ in Middle Virginia, 



Dairy cows enjoying a meal in the fields. 









48 


OUR VIRGINIA 


large numbers of hogs, cattle, 
and sheep are also raised. 

People in cities also need milk, 
butter, and cheese. Cows which 
are raised for this purpose are 
called dairy cattle. Around Rich¬ 
mond and cities in Middle Vir¬ 
ginia ■ there are many dairy 
farms. 

If a farmer wishes to make 
money on a dairy farm, his 
cattle must have plenty to eat. 
The growing season is so long 
that cattle can graze on the 
grasses for ten months out of 
the year. The winters are so 
short and large cities are so 
near, that dairy farms in Middle 
Virginia can make money selling 
their milk and butter. 



Alfalfa 


Milk must be hauled to town 
and sold as soon after the cows 
are milked as possible. There- 



Raising hogs on alfalfa 








MIDDLE VIRGINIA 


49 


fore good roads are needed. 
Wagons and automobiles can 
use these roads and get milk to 
town in a hurry. 

Many sheep graze on the hills 
of Middle Virginia. Hogs get 
fat eating corn and alfalfa. Al¬ 
falfa is a tall grass, and much is 
grown in Middle V^irginia. Four 
crops a year can be harvested. 
Both corn and alfalfa are used 
to feed stock. 

Middle Virginia is just the sec¬ 
tion in which to raise hogs. Be¬ 
sides good food for them, there 


is plenty of shade and pure, run¬ 
ning water. When hogs have 
this chance, they do not get sick 
or have diseases so easily. 

Tobacco 

The people in Middle Virginia 
still raise a great deal of tobacco, 
and much money is made on it. 

After tobacco is cut, it is made 
ready to be 'Vured.” The people 
you see in this picture are pull¬ 
ing off leaves and stringing them 
on a stick. 

Then the tobacco is put in a 
barn, and a fire is built to ''cure” 
it. 







50 


OUR VIRGINIA 



A tobacco field and barn. 


After the tobacco is taken from 
the barns, it is hauled to ware¬ 
houses where it is sold. Much 
tobacco is sold in Danville. Both 
Richmond and Danville manu¬ 
facture a great deal of tobacco. 

Tobacco is also grown in the 
foothills of the Blue Ridge 
mountains. This is where the 
^'Piedmont” section of Virginia 
begins and where Middle Virgin¬ 
ia ends. Fine tobacco is raised 
in Piedmont Virginia. Ciga¬ 


rettes are made from it. Twenty 
million dollars' worth of tobacco 
is sold each year in Virginia. 

Cities and Towns 

Cotton is also sent to Danville 
to be made into clothing. In 
this city, which is on the Dan 
River, there are also flour mills 
and other factories. At North 
Danville, just across the river, 
are mills, factories, and railroad 
shops. 
























MIDDLE VIRGINIA 


SI 


South Boston, on the Dan 
River, does a large wholesale 
business. It is a fine market for 
tobacco. Along the line of the 
railroads are many towns such 
as Chatham, in Pittsylvania 
County; Clover and Houston, in 
Halifax County; Boydton, 
Clarksville, and Chase Citv, in 
Mecklenburg County; Burkeville 
and Crew, in Nottoway County; 
Keysville, in Charlotte County; 
Emporia, in Creenesville County; 
and Farmville, in Prince Edward 


County. Alost of these towns 
are tobacco markets. In Han¬ 
over County is Ashland, the 
home of Randolph-Macon Col¬ 
lege. This town is near Rich¬ 
mond, and connected with that 
city by an electric car line. 
Bowling Green, in Caroline 
Count}", has a wagon factory and 
small industries; Columbia, in 
Fluvanna County; Louisa, in 
Louisa County; and Manassas, in 
Prince William County, are fine 
villages. In the region of Aliddle 



Warehouse, where tobacco is being sold. 







52 


OUR VIRGINIA 



A good sand and clay road in Virginia, 


Virginia north of the James 

River there are no large cities. 

Rocks and Minerals 

The rivers of Virginia which 
have dried up and those which 
are still running have left much 
sand and gravel. These are now 
used in making concrete, for 
building roads, and for moulding- 
iron. From Virginia’s hills 
many carloads of gravel are 
shipped over the state and used 
in building houses, offices, and 
roads. 

If you have ever noticed a 


wet, clay road, you will remem¬ 
ber that it is very slippery. Auto - 
mobiles skid easily when passing 
over wet, hard clay. But clay, 
wheu mixed with sand, makes a 
good ^ffiirt road.” Most of the 
roads in our state are of this 
kind. 

Clay is also used to make 
bricks. There are brick yards in 
Middle Virginia where many 
bricks are made. Some of the 
best bricks are made in Rich¬ 
mond. 

In Goochland and Amelia 







MIDDLE VIRGINIA 


53 



What granite rocks look like. 


counties there are beds of gra¬ 
phite. This is used to make pen¬ 
cils, stove polish, and to grease 
bicycle chains and machinery. 
They also get ^Toobs gold^’ in 
Amelia county. This is sent to 
factories where it is used in mak¬ 
ing fertilizers. 

As we travel through Middle 
Virginia going west to the 
mountains, we will see men work¬ 
ing in quarries. They are break¬ 
ing up large rocks into stone. 


These stones are used mostly for 
buildings. Granite stones are 
cut into blocks and used in build¬ 
ing outside walls of buildings. 

Slate, which is also dug from 
the hills, is used in making roof¬ 
ing for houses. The first gold 
mined in the United States came 
from a section running from the 
Potomac River to Halifax 
County, but this was not very 
‘ rich in gold. 

South of the James River 

The part of Middle Virginia 
south of the James River and 
bordering on the North Carolina 
line is the region of bright to¬ 
bacco. This region was very 
wealthy before the “War be¬ 
tween the States,’’ when it was 
a land of large plantations and 
many slaves. Now the country 
is divided into many small farms 
and dotted with small towns and 
villages. 

This section is well watered. 
Besides tobacco, the chief crops 
are corn, wheat, oats, hay, and 
fruits. Much of it is still covered 
with forests of pine, oak, elm and 
poplar. Some of the land is de¬ 
serted. The Buffalo Lithia 
Springs, in Mecklenburg County, 









54 


OUR VIRGINIA 



scene in Middle Virginia 






MIDDLE VIRGINIA 


55 


are well known. The water is 
used in hospitals in cities. Min¬ 
eral waters are found in Halifax, 
Prince Edward, Amelia, Pow¬ 
hatan, and Chesterfield Counties. 


The Norfolk and Western, the 
Virginian, and the Southern rail¬ 
roads run through this section 
and help to make good markets 
for the cities and the towns. 

















56 


OUR VIRGINIA 



Piedmont, which rests at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 














CHAPTER VIIL 


PIEDMONT 

When the Blue Ridge moun¬ 
tains are ahead of us and the 
foothills are around us, we are 
in the Piedmont section of Vir¬ 
ginia. It is called 'TiedmonP' 
because this word means “foot of 
the mountains.’’ As we look out 
of our car windows the moun¬ 
tains in one place look as if some 
great giant had become angry 
and had broken a long mountain 
into pieces. Here and there are 
mountains which stand by them¬ 
selves. From the distance these 
mountains look like knobs. Some¬ 
times these “knobs” are in 
groups, sometimes in lines, like 
soldiers. Between the moun¬ 
tains are valleys;—some long, 



VIRGINIA 

some straight and wide, others 
narrow. The Peaks of Otter are 
a part of this scenery. 

Climate 

The mountains are not high 
enough to be covered with snow 
all the winter, but they are high 
enough to be very beautiful and 
to make summer weather cool. 
The air in the mountains is drier 
than it is in Middle Virginia and 
in Tidewater Virginia. For this 
reason there are many bright, 
sunny days. People who have 
tuberculosis find it helpful to 
breathe this pure, dry air. The 
state has built a hospital here for 
those who are sick with this 
disease. 

When we say that the air is 
dry, we do not mean that it does 
not rain. There is enough rain 
to make splendid crops grow. 
Besides this, the rain makes 
many springs and streams. In 
October, when it begins to get 
cool, Jack Frost first comes; but 


The Peaks of Otter. 







58 


OUR VIRGINIA 


it never does get very cold, nor 
stay cold for a long time. Only 
in December, January, and Feb¬ 
ruary is it too cold for the cattle 
to graze. For nine months in 
the year they do not have to be 
kept under shelter. This makes 
cattle very happy, for they do 
not like to be shut up. 



storage, food and shelter for cattle 
in winter. 


Apples 

As v^e look out of our car win¬ 
dows, we can also see many 
beautiful apple orchards. 

Among the orchards is the 
home of the Albermarle Pippin 
apples, so many of which are 
sold in Europe. Queen Victoria 
of England is said to have prized 
Albermarle Pippin apples above 
all others. There are those 
who say that the Virginia wine- 
sap apple is the most delicious of 
all our apples. In Patrick County 
there is said to be the largest 
apple tree in the world. It is sixty 
feet high, twelve feet around the 
trunk, and the spread of its 



Apple orchards dot a hundred hills. 







PIEDMONT VIRGINIA 


59 



Cattle 


Happy and contented 

branches is seventy feet. This 
tree is almost one hundred 
twenty-five years old. In one 
season, one hundred thirty-two 
bushels of apples were gathered 
from it. Apple growers in our 
state have worked hard to keep 
the soil in good condition so as 
to keep on growing apples. So 
successful have they been that 
twenty bushels of apples during 
one season are now gotten from 
almost everv tree. 

Farms 

Here is a farm and yonder a 
farm. On the sides of the moun¬ 
tains we can see many sheep. 
There is plenty of pasture land 
for sheep and cattle, too. In one 
year fifteen hundred carloads of 
spring lambs were shipped from 



Sheep 


in Piedmont Virginia. 

this section to New York, Phila¬ 
delphia, and Baltimore. 

In northern Piedmont, horses 
like these are raised. Many 
thoroughbred horses are sold, 
especially in Louden County. 



If you went out among the 
farms during the warm months, 
you would find farmers raising 
corn, wheat, oats, rye, and buck¬ 
wheat, especially in Floyd, Car- 
roll, and Grayson counties. Fine 






60 


OUR VIRGINIA 


tobacco is raised in Piedmont 
V^irg'inia. 



A field of fine Piedmont tobacco. 


The crops and fruit trees send 
their roots down into the rich 
soil after food and water. The 
g'roiind holds lime and potash of 
which crops and fruit trees are 
A'ery fond. Crops and fruit trees 
reach out and breathe the hne 
air of Piedmont through their 
leaves. 

These are the reasons that the 
Piedmont section is good for 
crops and fruit trees. 

Sometimes Jack Frost comes 
right after warm weather begins, 
and when the apple trees have 
begun to bud. If the frost is 
heavy, the apple crop may be a 
failure. 

Why Factories Are Built 

Why do we not all live in the 


country where we can get food 
easily and where we do not have 
to stay “dressed up’’ all the time ? 
When there were no large cities 
in Virginia and everyone lived on 
farms, people tried to raise 
enough to eat and wear. When 
they could not do this they would 
trade with their neighbors. But 
the}' found that they needed 
more things than they could get 
by doing this. When railroads 
came, people stopped trading in 
this way. They began to send 
their hides and wool to one place. 
A “company^ was formed, and a 
large building was erected. In 
this building* was placed the kind 
of machinery which would make 
liides into leather and shoes. 
This is called a shoe factory. The 
building in which wool is made 
into clothes is called a woolen 
mill. 

Among the hills of Piedmont 
Mrginia are the cities of Lynch¬ 
burg and Charlottesville. The 
largest and most successful shoe 
factories in the United States, 
with one exception, are located 
at Lynchburg*, and large woolen 
mills are situated at Charlottes¬ 
ville. Since many men and 



PIEDMONT VIRGINIA 


61 


women have to run the machines 
in these factories and live in 
houses nearby, these places have 
become manufacturing cities. 
Hides and wool, which are called 
“raw materials,’’ are sent to 
these cities from the surrounding 
country. 

Wholesale and Retail Trade 

Hundreds of things are made 
in factories. Still men and 
women go on making more and 
more of them. How are all of 
these things to be gotten to those 
who need them? The people in 
the factories are busy making 
things and do not have time to 
attend to the business of selling 
the goods. 

Large buildings or warehouses 
are made to receive the manu¬ 
factured goods. These buildings 
are called wholesale departments 
because the goods are sent out 
from them in whole packages, or 
dozens, or bushels. They are 
bought in wholesale lots bv mer- 
chants or storekeepers whose 
stores are in different parts of 
the city, in the country, or in 
other cities. 

When goods are bought by 


storekeepers, they are unpacked 
and made ready to sell. Then all 
who need these things go to the 
stores to buy them. They pay 
for the goods and take them away 
to use them. This is one way 
trade is carried on. 

Farmers who sell their pro¬ 
ducts to mills and factories are 
paid by checks on banks of the 
city. The wholesalers and the 
people who buy from the stores 
also use the banks. Wherever 
there is trade, there are banks. 

Factories 

Besides shoe factories and 
woolen mills, there are factories 
for making iron goods, lumber, 
dishes, and bricks in Piedmont 
Virginia. Along the foothills 
and slopes of the Blue Ridge 
mountains many kinds of trees 
grow. These trees are cut down 
and hauled to sawmills. The 
walnut and chestnut trees are 
cut into lumber with which to 
make furniture. The bark of 
some trees is used for tanning 
leather. Some of the tall trees 
are used for telephone poles. 
Some of the small ones are cut 
into short pieces and used for 
cord wood to burn in stoves and 


62 


OUR VIRGINIA 



A paper 

fireplaces. Some of the large 
trees furnish lumber for cross¬ 
ties, which are put under steel 
rails of railroad tracks. Large 
numbers of trees are cut down 
and mashed for making paper. 
This is called pulpwood. 

Summary 

In the Piedmont section of 
Virginia there are broad, fertile 
vallevs. On the hills there are 
trees which are used for many 
purposes. There are fields on 
which are raised apples, peaches, 
corn, wheat, oats, hay, cattle, 
sheep, hogs, poultry, and tobacco. 
There are many pure springs. 


mill. 

creeks, and rivers. On account 
of the fine climate, there are 
summer and health resorts. The 
scenery is very beautiful. 

Lynchburg and Charlottesville 

The largest city in the Pied¬ 
mont section is Lynchburg, 
which we have already men¬ 
tioned. It is called the ‘'Hill 
City,'’ because it is situated 
on several steep hills, the highest 
rising three hundred feet above 
the level of the James River. 
Lynchburg is wealthy and pros¬ 
perous. The river furnishes 
power for cotton mills, flour 
mills, candy factories, tobacco 




PIEDMONT VIRGINIA 


63 


factories, and other industries. 
The tobacco market is one of the 
largest in Virginia. Many 
wholesale houses are in Lynch¬ 
burg. 



Monticello 


Charlottesville, which we have 
said is the home of large woolen 
mills, is also the home of the 
University of Virginia. Monti¬ 
cello, the beautiful home of 
Thomas Jefferson, crowns a hill 
a short distance from Charlottes¬ 
ville. 

The Miller School 

The Miller School is not far 
away. This school was given to 
the County of Albemarle by 
Messrs. Sam and John Miller. 
Born in the “Ragged Mountains’’ 
in Albemarle County, these two 
poor boys had to work hard to 
make a living and to get an edu¬ 
cation. One of the ways that 
they earned money was to go 


through the briars and pick the 
wool which sheep had left. An¬ 
other way was to help make 
bricks at ten cents a day. They 
did not go to such a fine school 
as you do, but just to a log-cabin 
school. All the time they were 
struggling, they saw other poor 
people trying to get along. Then 
they determined that if they ever 
made money enough they would 
build a school for others who 
were poor. Finally, the brothers 
went to Lynchburg, which was 
then just a small town, and 
began to make soap. This busi¬ 
ness prospered, and the Miller 
brothers made money enough to 
build the Miller School for poor 
children in Albemarle County. 
When they died, they left 
money to keep the school up. 
This school has been a home for 
many orphan children in Albe¬ 
marle County. 

Towns 

Martinsville, in Henry County; 
Bedford City, in Bedford 
County; Culpeper, in Culpeper 
County; Warrenton, in Fauquier 
County; and Leesburg, in Lou¬ 
don County are thrifty towns 
with some manufacturing plants. 





Alexander Spotswood and his men see the beautiful Valley of Virginia 























































































CHAPTER IX. 


THE VALI.EY OF VIRCIXIA 


Alexander Spotswood 

It was two hundred years ag'o 
that the hrst white men crossed 
the Blue Ridge mountains. Alex¬ 
ander Spotswood, then Governor 
of the state, wanted to go out 
into the mountains and see the 
land which'the Indians used for 
their hunting grounds. It was 
the haunt of bears, wolves, pan¬ 
thers, wild cats, and buffaloes. 

In the year 1716, Spotswood, 
with a few of his men, set out in 
a stage coach from Williams¬ 
burg*. It took them thirty-six 
days to reach Fredericksburg. 
Other people who wanted the ex¬ 
citement of the trip joined the 
party there. They all got horses, 
and rode up the Rappahannock 
River. They crossed the Blue 
Ridge mountains near Swift Run 
Gap. Then they came to the 
Shenandoah River. They went 
along this river until they found 
a place where it was shallow 
enough to g'et across. Alexander 


Spotswood and his men who 
made this dangerous trip and 
who were the first white men to 
see the beautiful Valley of Vir¬ 
ginia, claimed the land for Eng¬ 
land. 

The land in the mountains is 
rocky and hard. When horses 
travel over this sort of ground 
they need iron shoes. Spots¬ 
wood A party had come from 
Tidewater Virginia, where the 
ground is sandy, and horses do 
not need shoes. Spotswood dis¬ 
covered iron ore in the moun¬ 
tains. He made a furnace and 
melted the iron into horseshoes. 
This was the first iron furnace in 
America. For this reason Spots¬ 
wood was called the “Tubal Cain 
of Virg'inia,” after the first man 
whom the Bible mentions as 
having worked in iron. When 
he returned to Williamsburg, he 
gave each of his companions a 
golden horseshoe covered with 
valuable stones. After this they 


66 


OUR VIRGINIA 


were called the ^d\nig-hts of the 
Golden Horseshoe.’’ On the trip 
the party covered 440 miles, and 
it took them eight weeks to 
travel this distance. 

One of the men with Spots- 
wood wrote an account of the 
trip. After crossing the Shenan¬ 
doah River, he said, “It is very 
deep. I went swimming in it. 
I got some grasshoppers and 
fish, and another and I, we 
catched a dish of fish, some 
perch, and a kind of fish they call 
chub. The others went a hunt¬ 
ing and killed deer and turkeys. 
I graved my name on a tree by 


the river side, and the governor 
buried a bottle with a paper en¬ 
closed on which he writ that he 
took possession of this place in 
the name and for King George I 
of England.” 

When Spotswood and his 
party had returned, they told 
everybody about what a beauti¬ 
ful country it was. A few years 
later, settlers were entering the 
valley, but they came from 
Pennsylvania — people of Ger¬ 
man and Scotch-Irish stock. Now 
thousands of people live in cities 
in the Valley. Many thousands 
more live on farms like this: 





THE VALLEY 


67 


In the Valley 

When we get over the Blue 
Ridge mountains, we are in the 
Valley of Virginia where the 
Knights of the Golden Horse¬ 
shoe went over two hundred 
years ago. In place of the thick 
forests that the Knights saw, 
there are beautiful farms which 
look like the picture of page 66. 

On all sides we see green fields, 
blooming flowers, green shrub¬ 
bery, beautiful trees, and fruit 
orchards. When it is time to 
pick the apples, we can see many 
scenes like the picture below. 

Instead of wild turkeys and 


birds of many kinds that Spots- 
wood’s party saw, there are now 
chickens, ducks and tame tur¬ 
keys; but the mountains around 
the valley have not changed. 

Wheat is the great crop of the 
Valley of Virginia. Wheat also 
grows in other places in our 
state. When Virginia wheat is 
ground, it makes very fine flour. 
If the money which is paid for 
the flour made in Virginia mills 
each year were divided among 
all the people of the state, each 
person would receive about ten 
dollars. 

Cyrus AIcCormick was born 






68 


OUR VIRGINIA 



A duck ranch 


in Rockbridge County. He in¬ 
vented the reaper, which is now 
used not only in Virginia, but all 
over the world. 

Botetourt County is one of the 
largest tomato growing counties 
in the United States. Here 
they pack one million cases of 
tomatoes every year. 

Here is a story of the tomato 
plant. What is told in this story 
might have happened in the 
Valley of Virginia, because they 
now raise thousands of tomatoes, 
put them up in cans, and ship 
them. 

The Tomato Plant * 

'‘Have another tomato, 
Johnny,” said Grandma, as she 
^saw the last red slice disappear 
from Johnny’s plate; "I think 
you like tomatoes.” 

"I do,” said Johnny; "I like 


them raw, and stewed, and 
baked, and almost any way.” 

"Didn’t you like tomatoes 
when von were little. Grandma?” 
Johnny asked. He saw Grand¬ 
ma looking down at her plate 
with a smile in her eyes. 

"No,” Grandma said, "but 
that was because I was a big 
girl before I ever tasted one. I 
never saw a tomato until I was 
thirteen years old. 

"I can remember it so well. 
peddler came by our farm once 
a month, bringing buttons and 
thread and such little things to 
sell. He brought the tomato 
seed to mother. 

"He used to carry seeds and 
cuttings of plants from one far¬ 
mer’s wife to the next. They 
liked to see him come. He could 
tell all the news, too. '^rom up 
the road and down. 

"One spring morning he came. 
After mother had bought all she 
needed from his big, red wagon, 
he fed his horse. As he sat by 
the kitchen fire waiting for his 
dinner, he fumbled about in his 
pockets in search of something. 
Then he drew out a very small 
package and handed it to mother. 


♦ By permission of The Youth's Companion 








THE VALLEY 


69 


T have brought you some 
love-apple seeds/ he said. T got 
them in the city; I gave my sister 
half and brought half to you.' 

'Thank you, kindly/ mother 
said, as she looked at the little 
yellow seeds. T am very glad to 
get them. What kind of a plant 
is the love-apple?' 

'Well,' said the peddler, 'the 
man who gave the seeds to me 
had his plants last year in a 
sunny fence corner. The flowers 
are small, but the fruit is bright 
red. It is very pretty among the 
dark green leaves. You can't 
eat the fruit, though—it may be 
poisonous. It is something new. 
The man who gave me the seeds 
got them from a captain of a 
ship from South America. They 
grow wild there.' 

"So mother planted her love- 
apple seeds in a warm fence cor¬ 
ner. They grew, and the little 
yellow blossoms came. After 
them came the pretty red fruit. 
We children would go out and 
look at it, and talk about it. We 
wondered if it would hurt us if 
we just tasted it. 

"One day mother heard us 
talking about it, and she called 


us away. She told us that if 
we could not be satisfied to just 
look at the pretty red fruit, she 
would have to pull up the love- 
apple vines and throw them 
away. The peddler had said it 
might be poisonous. 

"We knew she would be sorry 
to do that, for no one else about 
had any love-apples. So we kept 
away from the fence corner. The 
vine grew and blossomed, and 
the red showed in new places 
every day. The birds did not 
seem to be at all afraid of the 
fruit, but ate all they wanted of 
it. 

"One day, in the early fall my 
uncle came from New York to 
make us a visit. When he went 
out in the garden he stopped in 
surprise. 'Why, Mary,' he said, 
'what fine tomato vines you 
have! Where did you get 
them?' " 

" 'We call them love-apples/ 
mother said. Then she told him 
how the peddler had brought the 
seed. But when my uncle found 
that we were afraid to eat them 
he laughed. He showed mother 
how to get soJTif^ ^eadv for 
supper 


70 


OUR VIRGINIA 


“That was my first taste of 
tomato, Johnny/’ Grandma said, 
“and you shall have some for 
supper fixed the same way—cut 
up with cream and sugar.” 

Where Cities are Located 

Five rivers flow through the 
valley: the Potomac, Shenan¬ 
doah, James, Roanoke, and New 
rivers. These rivers furnish 
water and power for the cities 
in the Valley. The rivers flow 
t h r o u g* h broad, rich valleys 
where the cities are. This is the 
reason that the Valley cities can 
spread out. 

You can see that whenever the 
city of Roanoke needs more 
room for its business and fac¬ 
tories, it can spread out. Roa¬ 


noke is called the “Magic City.’’ 
The railroad decided to build 
shops where Roanoke now is. 
As soon as the railroad did this, 
many people came there to work. 
Then factories for making iron 
goods of many kinds were put up, 
and houses, stores, and bank 
buildings were built. In two 
years Roanoke grew to be a city. 
This is why it is called the 
“Magic City.” 

Our Trip Through the Valley 

If we take a trip from Bote¬ 
tourt County to Frederick 
County, we will see interesting 
sights and many things going on. 
Coal and iron are being mined in 
Botetourt County. In Rockbridge 
County, at Goshen, there are 



In the beautiful Valley of Virginia. 







THE VALLEY 


71 


y 



Through the Valley by train. 


larg*e iron furnaces. There are 
also places where limestone is 
burnt for making cement. Here 
and there, are sawmills and wood 
factories using oak, walnut, 
hickory, and pine logs. Over 
yonder is a tanning factory. 
With all of this going on, we 
know that there are plenty of 
railroads to do the hauling. 

In nearly every county through 
which we pass there are mineral 
springs—Rockbridge Alum and 
White Sulphur, in Rockbridge 
County; Orkney, in Shenandoah 
County; Chalybeate, in Augusta 
County; and many others in the 
counties of Frederick, Rocking¬ 
ham, and Botetourt. Hotels have 


been built at these springs for 
those who come to drink the 
water. 

Among the wonderful sights in 
this section of the valley are 
Natural Bridge, in Rockbridge 
County, and Luray Caverns, in 
Page County. You will read 
about these places later. 

Let us now see what cities and 
towns we will visit. In Rock¬ 
bridge County is Buena Vista, 
where we can see iron, steel, and 
brick factories, terra cotta works, 
paper mills, and machine shops. 
The next city is Lexington, 
where there are two colleges— 
the Virginia Military Institute 
and Washington and Lee Uni- 



72 


OUR VIRGINIA 


versity. The next city is Staun¬ 
ton, in Augusta County, where 
there are factories and where 
trade in flour is carried on. This 
is the birthplace of Woodrow 
Wilson. Nearby are Waynes¬ 
boro and Basic City. In Rock¬ 
ingham County is Harrisonburg, 
where there is a State Normal 
School. In Shenandoah are the 
towns of New Market, Wood- 
stock, and Strasburg. In the last 
town are porcelain and pottery 
works. 

In Page County is Luray; in 
Warren County, Front Royal; in 
Clarke County, Rerryville; and 
in Frederick County, Middleton. 
Winchester is the center for 
trade in the northern part of the 
valley, and it has many factories. 


especially flour and leather. 

In our trip through the valley 
from North Carolina to Roa¬ 
noke, we will see the people 
mining, manufacturing, and rais¬ 
ing stock. It is in this part of 
the valley, especially in the coun¬ 
ties of Smyth, Wythe, and Pu¬ 
laski, that cattle are raised to be 
sent to Europe and South Amer¬ 
ica. All along we see fine horses, 
sheep, and cattle. 

There are many iron furnaces 
and iron and 'steel factories, 
which make railroad and street¬ 
car wheels and other things. 

From the fine clay which is 
found, vitrified bricks and sewer 
pipes are made. In Roanoke 
County, as well as in Botetourt 
County, we will find peoj)le work- 



On our way through the Valley of Virginia 







[TIE WELLED 


in canneries. In Wythe 
County there are wood and 
leather factories. All around 
there are mills where furniture 
and farming- tools are made. 

It is in Washington and Smyth 
Counties that we will find many 
people working in salt mines. 
We are told that the reason salt 
is found way up here is because 


/ o 

the ocean once covered this 
section. 

There are mineral springs in 
this section, too—White Sulphur 
and Alleghany, in Montgomery 
County; Alum Springs near 
Saltville; and others in Wash¬ 
ington and Smyth counties. 

Let us see what towns and 
cities we will visit. Bristol, in 



A part of the City of Roanoke, showing the railroad. 






74 


OUR VIRGINIA 


Washington County, is on the 
Tennessee line. One part of 
Bristol is in Virginia; another 
part is in Tennessee. For this 
reason there are two post-offices. 
Letters addressed to a person in 
Bristol, Virginia, will go to the 
Virginia post-office; one ad¬ 
dressed to a person in Bristol, 
Tennessee, will go to the Ten¬ 
nessee office. 

Other towns are Marion, in 
Smyth County; Wytheville, in 


Wythe County. In Pulaski, in 
Pulaski County, there are iron 
and zinc furnaces, flour mills, and 
wood-working factories. In go¬ 
ing from Pulaski to Christians- 
burg, in Montgomery County, we 
will pass Radford, where there is 
a State Normal School. Farther 
up is Roanoke, which is the the 
end of our trip. Roanoke was 
once called ‘^Big Lick” from the 
salt there which wild animals 
came many miles to get. 

























CHAPTER X. 


IN THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS 


Long ago men went into the 
mountains to get away from 
some people who drove them 
from other parts of Virginia. 
This was when our Virginia was 
owned by England. A governor 
of Virginia whom the King of 
England sent over here to rule, 
drove these people away. They 
did not want to go to the moun- 



Mountain trail in Appalachia. 



A mountain road in Appalachia 


tains, but there was nowhere 
else for them to go. If they had 
not gone, they would have been 
killed by the terrible governor 
whose name was Dunmore. 

The people found their way in 
the mountains by trails which 
animals and Indians had made. 
Now roads have been built, and 
people do not have to use these 
trails any longer. 

Once in the mountains, these 
people had to work very hard to 
make a living. They picked out 
places to build their houses. 










76 


OUR VIRGINIA 


Enough trees had to be cut down 
and enough ground cleared. 
Then the people went out to 
hunt and fish. There were fish 
in the mountain streams' and 
birds, deer, and bears in the 
forests; but there were also 
wild cats and panthers to fight. 
The people had to have clothes 


and blankets to keep them warm. 
Like the Indians, they used skins 
of animals for clothes and blan¬ 
kets, and wore moccasins instead 
of shoes. After a long time, 
when they had killed and driven 
away bears and other wild ani¬ 
mals, they were a1:)le to raise 
cows, sheep, and horses. From 
these domestic animals they got 


meat for food, wool for clothes, 
and skins for shoes. 

Thousands of people were liv¬ 
ing in Tidewater and Middle 
Virginia when only a few hun¬ 
dreds were in the mountains. 
Even now there are three people 
in Tidewater Virginia to every 
one person in the mountains. 


After awhile some people who 
lived down in Middle Virginia 
went into the mountains and 
told the people who had gone 
there that it was safe for them 
to come back; that the English 
did not own \drginia any more. 
George Washington had led his 
armies against the English and 
had run them away. Virginia 



His friends 




IN THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS 


now belonged to them all. The 
people who had taken refuge in 
the mountains were glad to hear 
this, but so many of them had 
learned to love the mountains 
so much that they would not 
leave. In fact, people from else¬ 
where came to join them, es¬ 
pecially when they found that 
iron and coal were hidden in 
these mountains. 

Mountain Farms 

After many years the moun¬ 
tain people owned many good 
farms. These fa'rms are not like 
those in Middle Virginia and in 
Tidewater. They are on the 
hillsides and in the valleys. 

In the open places grass 



In Appalachia. Sheep are being driven 
to town. See the farms we will pass 
on oiir way there. 


// 

grows; in other places the 
ground is very rocky. Where 
there is no grass, trees, or l)ushes 
to hold the soil, rains wash down 
the hillsides. Mountain farmers 
have to plant strong things 
which will grow in the hard, 
rocky soil, and which can stand 
the cold weather. Tobacco, cot¬ 
ton, and peanuts can not be 
grown, but corn, wheat, oats, 
and rve can be raised. 



A cornfield 


Sheep and goats enjoy the pas¬ 
tures on the hills. Because goats 
eat almost everything, they keep 
the land cleared of bushes and 
underbrush and grass grows in 
their place. 

Fine cattle are raised in South¬ 
west Virginia. They too, enjoy 
the blue grass which grows wild 
on the hills and mountainsides. 

The cattle in this section of 
our state are so fine that people 










78 


OUR VIRGINIA 


in Europe buy them. In one 
year five thousand carloads or 
ninety thousand cattle were sent 
away from this section. This 
brought twelve million dollars to 
those who raised them. These 
cattle can be sent to Newport 
News and Norfolk, loaded on 
steamships, and sent to Europe. 
It is the only section in the 
United States which ships cattle 
direct from the blue grass pas¬ 
tures to foreign places. This is 
a long ride for cows to take. Do 
you think you would like to take 
such a long trip? 

There is plenty of rain in the 
mountains to supply the people, 
the crops, and the stock with 
water. There are two winding 
rivers which run through South¬ 
west Virginia — the New River 



Cattle in Highland County- 



Export cattle waiting to be loaded on 
railroad cars. 


and the Clinch River. The New 
River flows across the Alleghany 
mountains to the great Ohio 
River. 

On mountain farms everybody 
is needed to help harvest the 
crops. They do not have colored 
people to help them. All the 
people are white. When harvest 
time comes, the children help in 
the fields. They can not go to 
school and help on the farms,, 
too. Eor this reason the school 
3 'ear is not so long as it is in 
cities where children do not have 
to leave school for the farm. 
Mountain children learn many 
things which cit\" children do not. 
They learn how to raise hogs and 
corn, and to do many useful 
things about the farm. 

How Products Get to Market 

It is not easy to build railroads 










IN THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS 


79 



Bringing farm products to the railroad. 


in the mountains. If there are 
many valleys, railroads can be 
built more easily than if there 
are few valleys, which is the way 
it is in the Appalachian section. 
If a railroad is built through this 
section, tunnels have to be dug 
through the mountains. 

Railroads are not built in 
mountains unless there is some¬ 
thing valuable for them to haul 
away. For a long time the people 
in our mountains did not raise 
enough crops to pay for railroads 
to be built. Rut when coal, iron. 


and other minerals were found, 
and mines were sunk in the 
ground to get these, railroads 
were built. But there are not as 
many railroads in the Appala¬ 
chian section as there are in 
Middle or in Tidewater Virginia. 

After railroads had been built, 
mountain farmers began to raise 
more crops, hogs, sheep, and 
cattle because they had a way to 
ship them to cities. Since there 
are only a few railroads in our 
mountains, the farmers have 
to bring their products a long 










80 


OUR MRGINIA 


distance. 

Because rains wash awav the 
ground which does not have 
something growing on it, it is 
hard to keep the roads in good 
condition. Farmers who live far 
away from the railroad have to 
haul their products to the rail¬ 
road stations over very rough 
and steep roads. This is the sort 
of wagons our farmers use who 
live in the mountains. 

Timber and Coal 

After railroads came, many 


saw mills were also built. Now 
oak, walnut, hickory, and other 
hardwoods are cut into lumber 
at these mills and shipped away. 
The sparks from the smokestacks 
sometimes set dry brush ahre and 
cause forest fires. These fires 
sometimes burn up thousands of 
valuable trees. But people are 
learning to be more careful. 

The government owns many 
acres of forest lands in our Vir¬ 
ginia mountains. Trees in these 
forests are not allowed to be cut 



A fair in Tazewell County 







JX THE APPALACHIAN MCUXTAIXS 


81 



To market 


down. For many reasons the 
government wants to save them. 
When trees are cut down rains 
wash the soil away and ruin the 
land. If trees along the banks of 
a stream are cut down, the sun 
can dry up the stream. It takes 
a long time for a tree to grow. 
If they are cut down faster than 
they grow, there would soon be 
no trees left. For these reasons 
the government owns 280,000 
acres of forests in Virginia. 


Much coal lies buried in the 
mountains of Virginia. The coal 
fields cover 1,750 square miles. 
From the coal mines in these 
fields enoug'h coal is gotten every 
year to supply five tons to every 
man, woman, and child in Vir¬ 
ginia. The best coal found in 
our state is called “Pocahontas.” 
After coal is mined it is loaded on 
trains and hauled to cities and 
factories. Thousands of tons are 
seen on long freight trains which 




















82 


OUR VIRGINIA 


are headed for Newport News 
and Norfolk. 

The Story of a Lump of Coal * 

Eric and Errol sat by the fire 
toasting their toes. Eor a mo¬ 
ment they were silent, and then 
Errol spoke. 

^‘Eric,^’ she said slowly, ^‘I 
wonder what coal is, and how it 
is made. Do you know?’’ 

'‘No,” answered Eric, "but I 
know it is good to warm by, and 
that sometimes it has pretty pic¬ 
tures in its coals. Look at that 
lump yonder—I declare, if it 
isn’t a man!” 

Errol peeped. “It certainly 
is!” she exclaimed. “Arms, legs, 
and everything!” 

Eric continued excitedly: “And 
that little line across his face— 
that is his mouth! See it mov¬ 
ing! I can almost hear it speak!” 

“I can, too!” cried Errol. 

And just then—would you be¬ 
lieve it?—a thin raspy little voice 
did fall on the air. It said: 

“The air fed me. 

The sun warmed me. 

The waters offered me a bed. 

The rocks covered me. 

The gases kissed me. 


And I slept— 

Hundreds of years went by— 
then 

“A rude jar awoke me, 

A rough machine broke me, 

I was torn from my home, 
And turned to a flame! 

And now that I’m here. 

Pray, what’s my name? 

Guess!” 

Eric and Errol looked all about 
them; then they rubbed their 
eyes and gazed at each other. 
“Are we dreaming,” they cried, 
“or did somebody speak?” 

“I spoke,” rasped the coal man 
again. “I said—but wait until I 
get more comfortable!” — and 
with a creak and a crackle, he 
slid down to the hearth. His 
head, arms, and legs seemed 
made of white ashes which the 
red flame had left on him. Once 
down he flipped his coat tails, 
straightened his vest, tried his 
legs, and began: 

“Yes, I spoke. I was asking 
about my name. Can you guess 
it?” 

“Why, of course. You are a 
lump of coal,” answered the chil- 


Author, Alleine Fridy. Adapted and used by permission. 



IN THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS 


83 


dren. ‘'Anybody can see that; 
but what funny things you say 
about yourself. What do you 
mean?’' 

“Why, just what I said,” re¬ 
plied the lump of coal. “Don’t 
you know anything about me? 
Well, once I wasn’t coal at all. 
I was a forest.” 

“A forest!” 

“Yes, a forest; but that was 
thousands of years ago. Then, 


after I had stood so for a long, 
long while, I fell into a swamp, 
was pushed down into its mud 
and sand, where pressure and 
heat finally turned me to coal. I 
slept hundreds of years before 
man came along and found me. 

“One day, however, a terrible 
jar shook me, and I did not know 
anything for a long time. When 
I did come to my senses, my 
home had changed. I was still 



Miners ready to go down in a coal mine. 





84 


OUR VIRGINIA 


in my bed, but things around me 
were different. Instead of being 
in the quiet country place in 
which I had been born, I was now 
in what seemed to be a city under 
the earth. North, south, east, 
and west of me there stretched 
long, black tunnel avenuqs, each 
three or four miles long and dim¬ 
ly lig'hted by electric bulbs. 
Through each avenue there was 
a track on which tiny cars were 
drawn bv mules. There were 
cross streets, too, cut into the 
main avenues, and opening from 
the cross streets were small 
rooms. 

'' AVhat strange place is this?’ 
I cried in confusion when I first 
saw it all. AVhere AM I?” 

“ Tn a mine, as men call it,’ 
replied a rock that was just above 
me. 

“ ‘Bang!; want a dull thud just 
then. It seemed to come from 
the front end of a tunnel that 
was near by. 

'' ^\nd what is that noise?’ I 
asked again. 

'Men are coming into the 
mine,’ the rock answered. 

" 'But how do they get down 
here ?’ 


" 'You will find out,’ said the 
rock. 'Keep your eyes open now 
and see for yourself.’ And he 
would speak no more. 

"I did find out—and soon. Just 
then several miners, followed by 
other workmen, came into my 
part of the mine. They had picks 
in their hands and other queer 
tools. They hurried down the 
tunnel and into the dark little 
room where I was. As soon as 
they were inside, they raised 
their strange picks and brought 
them down pick, pock! pick, 
pock! right on the bed where I 
lay. The men had tiny lamps in 
their caps, so that they might 
see exactly where to aim their 
blows. Whack, whack, went the 
picks, and great pieces of black 
rock around me broke and fell. 
For hours they hewed away, 
loosening the coal, and then one 
of the miners said to the other: 
'We shall never get enough this 
way, Czacho; let’s blast.’ 

"So they drilled a small hole in 
the wall right by me, pushed a 
cartridge of black powder far 
back into it, and lit a fuse which 
they had put there. Then they 
shouted the warning, 'Fire! fire!’ 


IN THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS 


85 


and ran to the gangway for safe¬ 
ty. The shell burst, there was a 
puff of air, a dull roar, and a 
cloud of fine dust flew every¬ 
where. I felt myself going some¬ 
where, and before I knew it I 
was burrowing head foremost in 
a heap of coal already on the floor 
of the tunnel. 

^^For a moment I was dazed, 
and my side ached with a broken 
feeling. All at once I felt myself 
hurling swiftly through the air 
again. Somebody was tossing 
me to a car of coal that stood 
near. When I landed, there was 
a push, and the car went rolling 
out into the darkness to where a 
driver boy stood with his mule, 
a patient, blind old thing that 
was waiting to pull the car on 
out to the strange, dark hole 
that led up to daylight. This hole 
was the shaft or entrance to the 
mine from the world above. 

“Down through the shaft I 
saw a queer wire basket come 
scuttling toward the foot of the 
mine. It dropped through the 
deep, dark way, like a bucket 
down a well, and finally landed 
with a thud that set the echoes 
rumbling' through the hollow 


cavern about. A man got out of 
the cage and went his way. 

“And just then, from some¬ 
where behind me, a voice 
shouted: ^Clear the way! Clear 
the way, pals, the coal is coming 
into the carriage!’ There was a 
tilt of the car, a slide, a rush of 
coal, and the whole dump fell 
pell-mell into the basket. The 
ropes swished, the chains clanked, 
and the dirty Carriage’ rose 
slowly up to the bright, clean 
world above. 

“Up there I was hoisted on to 
a tall, black TreakeP near the 
mouth of the mine, and dumped 
into its huge cylinders, where I 
was ground and crushed, only to 
be dropped out on the ground 
later in a heap for hauling. 

“The next thing I knew I was 
in your town, and here in your 
home. Now that I am, will you 
agree with me that I said truly, 

“ 'A rude jar awoke me, 

A rough machine broke me, 

I was torn from my home. 
And turned to a flame! 

And now that Pm here. 

Pray, whaPs my name? 

“What? ‘Lump of coal,' you 


86 


OUR VIRGINIA 


say? No,, KING Coal! King in 
power, I rule the .world. GIANT 
Coal! Giant in strength, I sup¬ 
port you. I dye your dresses and 
ribbons in beautiful colors; I 
light your homes with gas; I 
turn the wheels of your great 
factories; I whirl your rushing 
trains across the country; I drive 
your great steamers over the sea; 
and I build your great manufac¬ 
turing cities! I am really the 
^spirit of all work.’ 

^‘Now vou know me—whence 
I came, what I am, what I do. 
Let me go back to my business 
of cheering the world.” 

And so saying, he swung 
about, climbed into the grate 
again, and laid himself down on 
the live coals once more. His 
coat tails shortened, his vest 
crumpled, his arms and legs 
dwindled away. For a moment 
the ■ thin, white line across his 
face broadened into a smile, then 
presently gave way to the tune: 

'Tra-la! tra-la! tra-li-la! 

I was torn from mv home 
And turned to a flame! 
Tra-li-la! Good-by.” 

Then all was silence. Sharp 
tongues of flame licked out all 


over his body. It separated, and 
he became a bed of red coals 
fringed with white ashes. 

“He is gone!” whispered the 
children who watched. “I wish 
he might have stayed.” 

Then Errol turned to Eric. 
“Do you suppose there really has 
been a little King Coal talking to 
us,” she asked rubbing her eyes, 
“or have we been dreaming?” 

“I don’t know,” answered 
Eric, “but this I do know; that 
was a mighty fine story he told 
us; wasn’t it?” 

Other Minerals 

More coal than iron is mined 
in Virginia, but there are only six 
states which produce more iron 
than does V^irginia. Erom Craig 
County came the iron with which 
the Tredegar Iron Works in 
Richmond made cannon for the 
Confederate Armies. 

Soapstone is another mineral 
that is found in the VirMnia 
mountains. From this, wash- 
tubs are made. Asbestos, which 
is made into a covering for fur¬ 
nace pipes, is also found here in 
the mountains. 

People dig salt from the moun- 



IN THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS 


87 



A factory which uses the iron ore when 
it is dug from the ground. 

tains and send it to factories 
where it is cleaned and put into 
bags and boxes. Marble, gran¬ 
ite, and other stones are also 
found in our mountains. 

Natural Tunnel, in Scott 
County, is an amazing sight. 
This tunnel '^just came” through 
the mountain. It has been there 
for thousands of years. Daniel 
Boone used it; buffaloes and 
other wild animals used to rush 
through it. The Virginia South¬ 
western Railroad now runs 
through this tunnel. In Bath 
Countv there are health re- 
sorts and mineral springs. Close 
to Hot Springs, which is the best 
known, are Warm Springs and 
Bath Alum. 

The towns are small in the 
Appalachian region of Virginia. 


Clifton Forge, in Alleghany 
County, is on the main line of 
the Chesapeake and Ohio rail¬ 
road. There are a number of 
factories at Clifton Forge. Cov¬ 
ington, in the same county, is in 
the midst of mines, timber, and 
farms. Commerce is carried on 
there. At Tazewell, in Tazewell 
County, there are a packing 
house, lumber plant, an ice 
plant, power plant, mills, and a 
lime company. Pocahontas is in 
the midst of the coal fields. In 
Wise County there are mainly 
iron furnaces and foundries. 
There are also tanneries, extract 
plants, and saw mills. Big Stone 
Gap, in this county, and Pearis- 
burg, in Wise County, have iron 
factories. 












OUR VIRGINIA 




From Virginia into West Virginia on the Chesaneake & Ohio Railroad. 






CHAPTER XL 


ANIMALS WE EIGHT 


Have you ever had the pink 
eye? If so, this was caused by 
a very little fly which 1)it and 
poisoned you. Mosquitoes buzz 
around in the air near where 
stag'iiant water stands. Stagnant 
water breeds insects. There is a 
great deal of stagnant water in 
holes and swamps in Tidewater 
\urginia, because the land is so 
level and flat. The bites of some 
mosquitoes may cause malarial 
fever. 

The common house fly is 
a filthv insect. We have learned 
that he is dangerous, so we have 
put screens to our windows and 
doors to keep him out of our 
houses. There was a time when 
milk buckets were not protected 
from flies and dirt. But doctors 
told us that unless flies were 
kept away from milk we might 
get typhoid fever. 

None of us like to get stung by 
a honey-bee, so we keep away 
from them. Honev-bees feed on 


honey-bearing plants like honey¬ 
suckle. These plants bloom dur¬ 
ing the summer. Since our sum¬ 
mers are long* in Virginia and our 
winters mild, Virginia bees are 
busy making honey most of the 
year. The comb is made of bees¬ 
wax. Roth honey and beeswax 
are valuable. 

Before trees, bushes, and wild- 
flowers were cut down to make 
way for fields of corn, potatoes, 
and wheat, many kinds of insects 
made their home in the forests 
and in the woods. They got their 
food from these growing things, 
and they lived on them. When 
man cut down their homes and 
took away their food, what were 

the insects to do? Thev must 

•/ 

learn to eat what the farmers 
planted in the fields. Worms and 
small insects sought the tobacco 
plants and vegetables. Bugs 
looked for and found their homes 
in potatoes, cabbages, and onions. 
Caterpillars, which once fed on 


90 


OUR VIRGINIA 


the leaves of trees in forests, 
took up their homes on shade 
trees and fruit trees. The ^‘June- 
bug” makes his meals on fruits. 
Apple, tobacco, and peach worms, 
together with other pests, kill 
much fruit. Their homes have 
been taken away from them, so 
they must have somewhere to 
live. 

Some insects take long trips on 
boats and trains. If they like 
their new home, they will raise 
their families there. Out in our 
wheat fields there are flies called 
Hessian flies which eat up much 
of our wheat. These flies came 
all the way across the Atlantic 
Ocean from Europe. Some in¬ 
sects from Mexico have also 
come to make their homes with 
us. The chinch bug likes to eat 
our corn, and the boll weevil is 
looking for our cotton. A moth, 
called the scale, lives on apple 
trees and kills them. There are 
three hundred different kinds of 
insects that may eat and kill our 
fruit and fruit trees. 

Insects eat the leaves of forest 
trees and bore holes into the 
trees. This makes trees weak 
and keeps them from growing 


tall and strong. Beetles eat 
wasps and birds eat beetles. 
When birds die in the forest, 
other beetles may come along 
and bury them. The remains of 
the birds help to make the ground 
rich so that trees can grow for 
other insects to eat. 

Dairymen and cattle raisers 
find that insects eat hides of 
cattle. Some insects feed on 
horses and sheep. Other kinds 
of very, very small insects make 
cattle, horses, hogs, and sheep 
sick. Sometimes all of a farmer’s 
hogs die from disease, just like 
thousands of people die from 
"'flu.” These deaths are caused 
by tiny animals. 

When people first went into 
the forests of Virginia, they had 
to fight wild cats, panthers, and 
bears. They killed deer, geese, 
and quail; but these are now 
very scarce. Men now go hunt¬ 
ing for them, but they are al¬ 
most gone. Very few bears are 
left. Some are in the Dismal 
Swamp, and a few may be found 
in the mountains. Instead of 
wild animals to fight, Virginians 
now have to fight tiny animals 
and insects. They have to find 


ANIMALS WE FIGHT 


91 


out what to use to kill each kind. 
Some things will kill one kind of 
insect and some another. Men 
spray fruit trees with poison. 
We know what to do to fight 
against these animals because 
there are scientists who work 
very hard to find out. 

Animals, like t o a d - f r o g s, 
snakes, and birds, help in killing 
insects. Toad-frogs eat worms, 
insects, and snails. Birds and 
snakes kill thousands of insects. 

How Insects Help 

There are some insects that we 
do not want to kill. We want 
just as many of them as we can 
get, because they help to make 
the crops and fruit trees grow. 
We owe nearly all our fruit trees 
to insects because they spread 
seed. All our beautiful flowers 
seem to have been caused by in¬ 
sects which carried the seed of 
one flower to another flower. 
Then the seeds of both flowers 
grew up together and made an¬ 
other kind of flower. Insects 
destroy hay, but we would have 
no clover were it not for them. 
We could not live if it were not 
for insects in the ground to^keep 
tumbling the earth and dying. In 


tumbling the earth they let the 
air into the ground and when 
they die they help to make the 
soil richer. 

The Fighters 

Farmers and fruit growers are 
not the only people who have to 
fight tiny animals. People in 
cities have to fight against tiny 
animals called MICROBES. The 
people are so busy working in 
factories, in stores,, and in other 
places that they elect a mayor 
and councilmen to protect them 
from microbes. The mayor and 
councilmen appoint doctors and 
engineers to fight against mi¬ 
crobes. Doctors and engineers 
have been to a college or univer¬ 
sity, like the University of Vir¬ 
ginia. This is where they learned 
about the habits of tiny animals, 
and how to fight and kill them. 

Unless the water we drink is 
pure, it will make us sick. When 
v.ater is unfit to drink, it is full 
of microbes. Stagnant water and 
water which has sewage in it 
may cause typhoid fever. People 
who live in our cities expect the 
doctors and engineers in charge 
of the water supply to furnish 
])ure w^ater. 


92 


OUR VIRGINIA 


Milk spoils very quickly. This 
is because microbes grow very 
rapidly in it. So officers in charge 
of the milk supply have to be 
very careful about our milk. 
They even go to the dairy farms 
to see if the cows and stables are 
kept clean. They see that milk 
is pasteurized in our city 
plants, and that it is kept clean. 
Officers who look after the milk 
supply have to be very careful. 

Measles, diphtheria, scarlet 
fever, and other diseases are 
caused by microbes. People in 
cities are so crowded that such 
diseases are easily spread. The 
health officers of our cities do all 
they can to keep people from 
‘hatching*’’ such diseases. This 
keeps these officers busy. 

\^egetables and meat which are 
sold in our markets also spoil 
easily. Microbes cause this, too. 
There are officers who go about 
the city markets to see that the 
food supply is fresh and clean. 
If this were not done, many 
people would die from being 
poisoned. 

The state also appoints officers 
to help fight against tiny animals 
and to protect the people. These 


officers go out to the dairy farms 
and examine the cattle and 
stables. If they find that cows 
have tuberculosis or some other 
disease, they may have the cows 
killed. If thev find the stables 
dirty, the farmer may have to 
pay a fine. These state officers 
also examine hogs and other ani¬ 
mals to see if they are healthy. 
All this is done to protect people 
—to keep them from being* sick, 
from drinking impure milk or 
eating diseased meat. 

The federal government in 
Washington also sends officers to 
Virginia to help in giving our 
people pure food and'to help in 
fighting disease. In our cities 
there are packing houses where 
cattle, hogs, and sheep are killed 
and made into beef, hams, and 
mutton. Government officers are 
sent to these plants to see that 
everything is done right. These 
officers are called inspectors. 
They see that the plant is kept 
clean and that the animals are 
properly killed. They also look 
after many other things. If the 
meat is impure they will make 
the company throw it away. 

The federal g'overnment also 


ANIMALS WE FIGHT 


93 


keeps officers at Norfolk to in¬ 
spect ships which come from 
other countries. You remember 
that we learned that insects and 
microbes do a lot of traveling. 
One of their favorite ways to 
travel is on boats in the food and 
fruit which comes from South 
America, Europe, and other 
countries. They travel in the 
fur of rats and on the hides of 
animals. These officers inspect 
the boats and see that everything 
is all right before the boats are 


allowed to land at the docks. 

Farmers, city officers, state 
officers, and federal officers have 
to hght against insects, pests, 
and microbes, or tiny animals. 
The best way to learn how to 
fight against these enemies is to 
go to college. The state is 
anxious for its people to learn 
these things so they build colleges 
to which young* men and women 
may go to learn how to protect 
their crops, themselves, and other 
people. 


94 


OUR VIRGINIA 



Up the river by Norfolk and Western Railroad 















CHAPTER XIL 


NATURE’S GIFTS 

What the Ocean Gives to Virginia 

The 1)ig ocean which washes 
the eastern shores of our state 
does a great deal for us. The 
corn and wheat which grow way 
up in the Valley of \^irginia get 
water from the ocean. 



The old and new lighthouses 
at Cape Henry. 


• The cattle which graze on our 
liills drink water which comes 
from the ocean. Rivers flow 


TO VIRGINIA 

down to the sea and furnish it 
with water. The sun draws up 
water from the ocean and clouds 
are made. The winds carry 
’ clouds over our land. When 
these clouds meet colder clouds, 
it rains. This happens often in 
Virginia. That is the reason we 
have such plentiful rainfall and 
so much water for our stock, for 
our plants and trees, and for 
ourselves. 

The Atlantic Ocean helps to 
give Virginia her fine climate. 
Out in this ocean there is a warm 
current of water which is called 
the Gulf Stream. The winds 
which blow over this stream are 
warmed bv it. Then thev blow 

w * ^ 

across the state, even to the 
mountains. That is one reason 
why the winters in Virginia are 
so mild. 

The Atlantic Ocean helps to 
keep the people of Virginia 
healthy. It makes changes in 
temperature. Every day is not 
exactlv alike. There are some 









96 


OUR VIRGINIA 


places in the world where cold 
spells last a long time, or when it 
rains for weeks and weeks with¬ 
out stopping. People get very 
tired of this kind of climate. 
Children in Virginia do not have 
to say very often, '‘Rain, rain, go 
away! Little Johnny wants to 
play.’’ Sunshine follows rain, 
and rain follows sunshine. The 
ocean helps to cause these 
changes. 

The seashore is a beautiful 
place and people enjoy going 
there. In the summer, thousands 
of people go to the seashore for 
boating, bathing, and fishing. 
Th is is good for them. Virginia’s 
seashore is helpful, because 
working people can get rest and 
health there; young and old 
alike can have a good time. 

The ocean also furnishes Vir • 
ginia with much food. Oysters, 
fish, crabs, shrimp, and clams are 
caught in the waters of Tide¬ 
water Virginia. 

In only one way does the ocean 
fail to help us. During hot spells 
in summer the dampness from 
the sea sometimes makes the 
heat harder to bear. This is what 
causes sunstroke. But sunstroke 


does not happen very often. 
Sometimes we say that we "feel 
the heat” so much. This is be¬ 
cause there is so much dampness 
in the air. 

The ocean also sends great 
vessels to our coast and carries 
our vessels across to foreign 
countries and to other places in 
the United States. In this way 
the ocean helps Virginia to get 
a market for her raw products 
and her manufactures. 

There are five ways in which 
the Atlantic Ocean helps Vir¬ 
ginia. It gives water for clouds 
and rain; it makes the tempera¬ 
ture change; it helps people to 
be healthy; it furnishes food; 
and it helps commerce. 

Matthew Fontaine Maury 

It was a great Virginian named 
Matthew Fontaine Maury who 
first showed the world how the 
ocean could help in other ways 

than just carrying ships. He was 

• 

able to do this because he was 
the first man who made a map 
of the ocean. He showed people 
that mountains and valleys were 
on the bottom of the ocean and 
many other things about the 


NATURE'S (SIFTS TO VIRGINIA 


97 


ocean which people did not 
know. 

Have you ever thoug'ht how 
Ave have been sending* (juick 
inessag'es across the ocean? On 
land we can telegraph or tele¬ 
phone ; but it is too far across 
the ocean to telephone. So many 
wires are put into a cable, and 
this is laid on the bottom of the 
ocean. Then messages are sent 
across the ocean along these 
wires. When this sort of mes- 
sag*e is sent, it is called a cable¬ 
gram. During* the World War 
Ave learned of Avhat AA*as going* on 
in Europe A*ery quickly because 
the neAvs Avas.sent by cablegrams. 

At one time men tried to lay 
such a cable along* the bottom of 
the ocean, hut they did not suc¬ 
ceed. When Maury made his 
map of the ocean and taught 
people about it, they Avere able 
to lay a cable along the paths 
Avhich Maury shoAved them. For 
this reason, he is called the 

'Tathhnder of the Seas.’’ 

« 

Maury also started the Aveather 
bureau at Washington. You Avili 
soon read -of Iioaa* important 
weather bureaus are to us. 

Maury asked that, after he 


died, his body be kept at Lexing¬ 
ton until the mountain ivy and 
rhododendron Avere in bloom in 
Goshen pass. Then he Avanted 
his body to be carried through 
the pass and some of these beau¬ 
tiful fioAvers aaTIcIi he loved, 
placed on his coffin. This was 
done. 

The tomb of this great man 
is in HollyAA^ood Cemetery, on the 
James River at Richmond. On 
it is AAU'itten, ^‘A\\ is AA^ell.” 

The Longest of Virginia’s Rivers 

I>et us take a trip up the James 
River, AAdiich is Virginia’s long¬ 
est river. It Uoavs hundreds of 
miles before it reaches the Chesa¬ 
peake Bay. When we leave 
Hampton Roads and go up the 
mouth of the James River we 
lind it A^ery wide. I-^arge boats 
may be anchored in the river. 
We can travel up this river in a 
large boat or in a small one. 
Sometimes the tide Avill be going 
with us, sometimes against us. 
The AA'ater is salty Avay up the 
river. 

Hoav does the Avater become 
salty? Drops of Avater pick up 


98 


O^R VIRGIXTA 



Jamestown Island as it is today. 


out of the ground here and there 
tiny bits of salt. 

Salt melts in water. Then the 
water takes this salt down the 
river. When the river gets wide 
and runs very slowly, the sum¬ 
mer sun cooks the water and 
draws it up into the sky. Rut 
the salt is too heavy to go up in 
the sky with the water, so it is 
left. In this way thousands of 
little pieces of salt are left. After 


many, many years, all the water 
gets salty. 

The water at Jamestown 
Island is salty. Jamestown Island 
is where Captain John Smith and 
some Englishmen landed in 1607, 
and made the first English settle¬ 
ment in our country. On this 
island is a beautiful statue of 
Pocahontas, who once saved the 
life of Captain John Smith. 

Along the banks of the James 








NATURE’S GIFTS TO VIRGINIA 


99 


River there are many beautiful 
homes. Some of them are the 
oldest in the United States. 

There are also many fine, rich 
farms along the river. Beyond 
Jamestown Island, in Middle 
Virginia, they do not raise pea¬ 
nuts and cotton, but they' do 
raise vegetables, alfalfa, corn, 
and tobacco. Because hogs and 
dairy cattle have plenty to eat, 
they are also raised. Milk and 
butter from the dairy farms are 
sent to Richmond and other 
cities. 

As we go up the river it is 
narrow, but the water is quite 
deep enough for large boats. All 
along the river, to the right and 
to the left, piers are built out in¬ 
to the water. Boats land at these 
piers and put off clothes, canned 
goods, and other things. They 
take away the farm products to 
other places. 

Lighthouses and buoys in the 
river warn us of danger from 
shallow water or rocks. 

One of the places we pass is 
called Citv Point. Near here the 
government bought, during the 
World War, munitions from the 
factories of the DuPont Powder 


Compan}" at Hopewell. So much 
munitions were needed in so 
short a time that thousands of 
people were rushed to these fac¬ 
tories. which had been built very 
quickly, but there were no 
houses for the people to live in. 
What were they to do? There 
was no time to build brick and 
concrete houses, so houses which 
could be built very quickly were 
erected. Some of these houses 
were made of pasteboard, or 
“beaver board.” Such houses 
were covered with roofing paper 
or some similar material. The 
population of the town which 
thus grew up so quickly came 
to be about 40,000 people—one 
of the largest cities in Virginia 
for about two vears. As soon as 
the war was over, the people had 
no work to do, so they left; and 
now there is just a town where 
once a city was. 

Such a city as this is called a 
“mushroom”, city, because it 
goes up so quickly and does not 
last long*. Many such cities of 
just this kind grew up in the 
United States in places where 
gold, silver, and oil were sudden¬ 
ly found; but this is the only one 


> > > 


1(X) 


OUR VIRGINIA 




Streams which feed rivers and quench thirst. 


X’irg'inia has seen on her own soil. 

en we get near Richinoii'l 
we see large factories, which line 
the banks of the rivers and in 
which hundreds of different 
things are made. 

In our boat, we can go no 
further than Richmond, because 
the river is shallow and full of 
rocks. We must now take up our 
trip l)y train, which will carry 
us far up the river. 

Way up the river there are 
many little brooks and streams 
which bring w^ater to feed the 
river. If we follow one of these 
streams, we will see it dancing 
into and through the valleys. 
Hundreds of these streams flow 
into the James River. 

The James River cuts through 
the Rlue Ridge mountains and 


falls over the rocks. One of the 
places where the river does this 
is known as Balcony Falls. Some¬ 
times the streams are dammed so 
that they will run fast over the 
dams. Falls and dams are used 



Mineral Water 


to make water furnish power to 
run factories. When water is 
made to do this it is called ''white 
coal.” 

We have seen that there are 
many mineral springs in all sec- 









NATL’RE’S GIFTS TO VIRGINIA 


101 


tions of our state. The reason 
for this is that there is plenty of 
rain and rock basins clown in the 
ground to hold the water. When 
the water sinks into the ground 
it gathers tiny bits of minerals 
like lithia, iron, and sulphur. Iron 
and sulphur are good for the 
blood. You may know that iron 
is in turnip-greens and spinach. 
It is also put in some medicines. 
Springs which contain these 
minerals are healthy for people. 
Many sick people glo to these 
springs and drink the water for 
their health. The water is also 
put up in bottles and shipped to 
people who can not go to the 
mineral springs. 

Each year enough mineral 
water is shipped from Virginia to 
supply four gallons to every man, 
woman, and child in our state. If 
the money received for this each 
year were divided among all the 
the people of Virginia, every one 
would get seven dollars apiece. 

What the Mountains do for Virginia 

In the mountains, the rivers 
wind around first one mountain 
and then another. In their wind¬ 
ing, they are joined by first one 


stream and then another. But 
the rivers can not flow through 
m o u n t a i n s. They must go 
around them. That is one reason 
why rivers are so crooked. 



Captain John Smith or Pocahontas may 
have looked through these trees, for this 
is the river from Jamestown Island. 

Streams which flow into rivers 
work down the sides of moun¬ 
tains and hills. When it rains 
in the mountains, dirt is washed 
down the mountain. This dirt 
and mud help to form the banks 
of rivers and help to make 
valleys rich. This means that the 




102 


OUR VIRGINIA 



On the mountainside 


dirt or soil in valleys is the sort 
on which many kinds of plants 
and trees grow. That is why so 
many beautiful wild flowers and 
trees are seen growing along 
river banks. 

People who were looking for 
rich soil soon found these rich 
valleys. These were the first 
places that were settled. The 
people cut down trees, ])ushes, 
and wild plants to clear the 
ground for planting crops. On 
these fields they planted corn. 


wheat, potatoes, and grasses. 
Even the wild grass which grows 
on the hillsides is good for food 
for cattle and sheep. 

Our people built mills along 
the banks of the rushing streams. 
These mills were used to. srrind 
wheat into flour, and corn into 
meal. They made large wheels, 
which held many paddles, over 
which the water ran.. This 
turned the wheels, which, in turn, 
ground the wheat or corn. 






NATURE’S CilFTS TO VIRGINIA 


103 


Later on, it was decided to 
build mills for making other 
thing's than hour or meal. 
Mighty rivers were dammed so 
that the rushing water could 
turn wheels for making many 
different kinds of thin gs to eat 
and to wear. So factories were 
built and hlled with machinery. 
Around the factories cities grew. 

The further we go up a river 
the smaller it gets. After awhile 


The mountains make the air 
cool and help to make it rain all 
over the state by sending' out 
cool air to meet the warm clouds 
Avhich are blown from the ocean. 
The mountains reach up for the 
snow and rain, and let the water 
run down their sides. Water is 
one of the most useful things we 
have. Because Virginia has so 
much water, it is blessed. Water 
is used not only to turn the 



Factories at Lynchburg. 


wheels of the machinery in mills 
and factories, but also to ([uench 
the thirst of cattle and other 
animals. In the cities and towns 
water is sometimes used to make 
electricity to light the houses. 
Drinking' water is also needed in 


we will come to a place where 
the river itself is nothing more 
than a little brook. This is 
where the river starts. It is 
called its “source.” So you see 
that the mountains help to give 
us our rivers. 









104 


OUR VIRGINIA 


homes in the city and in the 
country. For this purpose cities 
and towns in the mountains run 
large pipes from the mountain 
streams. Down in Tidewater 
Virginia there are no streams 
like these, but there are lakes. So 
the people pump the water from 
the lakes to the towns and cities. 
In Middle Virginia, the people in 
cities get their water from rivers 
and streams. The water supply 
of a city must also furnish water 
for the fire department. 



Natural Bridge 

Streams which run down the 
sides of mountains and hills are 
looking for a river or a lake. As 
they run along, large masses of 
rock are sometimes in the way. 
Long, long ago, a large mass of 
these rocks lay in the way of a 
mountain stream. For many 
years the rushing water flowed 
against these rocks. These rocks 
were softer at the bottom than 
they were at the top. The water 
washed them away at the bottom, 
and the stream got through. But 
it never did wash awav the hard 
rocks at the top. These hard 
rocks that are left now look like 
a bridge. It is called Natural 
Bridge, and is one of the wonders 
of the world. It is located in 
Rockbridge County, fourteen 
miles from Lexington. It took 
thousands of years for the water 
and wind to make this wonderful 
bridge. 

Luray Caverns 

We know that a drop of water 
can carry tiny bits of salt in it 
for a long distance. Drops of 
water can also carry tiny bits of 
limestone, and even gold. But 


Natural Bridge 



105 


NATURE’S GIFTS TO VIRGINIA 


they can not carry a tiny bit of 
limestone or gold very far. When 
one drop which is carrying a 
tiny bit of limestone meets an¬ 
other drop of water which is do¬ 
ing the same thing, they seem to 
agree to give up the limestone. 
When this happens, the lime¬ 
stone bits stick together like 
long-lost brothers. 

There are many caves in our 


V i r g i n i a mountains. Where 
these caves are, there is much 
limestone in the ground. The 
I.uray Caverns are many caves 
together. Drops of water above 
these caves sink into the ground 
and trickle through the top of 
the caves. These drops of water 
carrv little bits of limestone 
which they have picked up on 
their way. When the drops of 



One part of Liiray Caverns 













106 


OUR VIRGINIA 


water meet at the roof of the 
caves they leave their limestone 
bits with other limestone bits, 
which cling together. Then the 
water drops to the floor of the 
cave and makes pools or lakes. 
For many, many years this has 
been going on until now there 
are left hanging down from the 
roof limestone pieces shaped 
very much like icicles. 

Mountain Lake 

Way up on a mountain in 
Giles County there is a beautiful 
lake called Mountain Lake. The 
water in this lake is so clear that 



Mountain Lake 


boats sailing over it pass over 
the trunks and tops of trees 
which can be plainly seen by 
those in the boats. People think 
that a part of the mountain once 
sank down into the earth and the 
mountain streams filled the huge 
hole that was left. This lake is 
so beautiful that many people go 
there in the summer to enjoy 


bathing and boating. This is a 
mountain summer resort. 

If Virginia were all level land, 
water would stand where it 
rains. Our state would be damp 
and not fit to live in. There 
would be no rivers. We would 
not have our wonderful Natural 
Bridge, our beautiful Luray 
Caverns, and our waterfalls. 

The water from the mountains 
has made the plains, lowlands, 
and valle3^s fair and rich. The 
singing brooks, the running 
streams, the beautiful flowers, 
the growing trees, the ripe fields 
are all the gifts of our moun¬ 
tains. Factories by the sides of 
rushing streams, villages and 
towns, growing cities, and thou¬ 
sands of homes are the gifts of 
the hills. Plants which nestle in 
the rocks, pastures filled with 
cattle, forests which bear timber 
for shipping, and minerals and 
metals which hide under the 
earth are also the gifts of our 
mountains. 

What the Air Does for Virginia 

You have read of how cold it 
is way up north where the Eski¬ 
mos live. You have also read 





107 


NATURE’S Ulin 

how cold it is up in the moun¬ 
tains of Switzerland. Ice and 
snow^ stay on the ground all the 
year in the far north and on high 
mountains. \ ery little grows in 
these places because so much ice 
and snow kills the plants. 

In the highest mountains in 
\drginia you will not hnd ice 
and snow exce])t in the middle of 
winter. In the summer time, 
wiien it is very warm in Tide- 
w^ater Virginia, it is cool enough 
in the mountains for the t)eople 
to sleep under blankets at night. 

You have seen that the same 
thing's do not grow on the farms 
in Aliddle Virg'inia and in Tide¬ 
water Virginia. Peanuts do not 
grow on the hills or in the moun¬ 
tains. Cotton also, does not grow 
in the mountains. Tobacco is 
tougher than cotton. This means 
that it can stand much colder 
weather than cotton. .On the 
other hand, too much rainy and 
hot w'eather may kill wheat and 
corn, w'hile cotton will thrive. 

Different kinds of plants need 
diff'erent kinds of air to help 
them g'ro\v. Some need hot and 
moist air, others need cool air, 
with little rain. Whatever air is 


) TO VIRO INI A 

needed by plants whfch are 
raised on farms, the land must 
be i)lowed to let it get into the 
;soil. 



Plowing with a tractor. 


Peo])le who work in mines, 
factories, and offices in cities 
have to be fed. They do not 
raise what they eat. They ex¬ 
pect the farmers to raise their 
fo(Kl for them. There are many 
large cities in Virginia and some 
not in our state, but near us, like 
New York, Philadelphia, Palti- 
more, and Washington. Millions 
of people who live in cities need 
vegetables, milk, meat, and 
bread. Our farmers are able to 
supply people with all of these 
things. 

\ egetables grow first down in 
Tidewater Virginia. When the 
<\\v is first warmed frcnn the sum- 






108 


OUR VIRGINIA 


mer sun in Tidewater, it is 
cooler in other sections. When 
the people in Norfolk are getting 
'-egetables which are being 
raised around that city, the far- 



Cabbages grown in Tidewater in June— 
early cabbages — are shipped to colder 
sections. 


iners in the mountains will not 
gather vegetables until much 
later. 

People who live in cities may 
not worry when it does not rain, 
or when it is drv, or when it is 
hot or cold. But the farmer 
wants enough sunshine and rain 
to make his crops grow. If a 
frost comes it may kill his apple 
trees. If too much rain falls, it 
may ruin his cotton. If a long, 
dry spell of weather comes, it 
may burn up his tobacco. 

Before the planting season, the 
farmer gets his ground ready. 


He plows it so that the air may 
get down into it. When seeds 
are planted they will sprout if 
the ground is ready for them, and 
grow if the weather is right. 

The Weather Bureau 

We get a report every day 
about the weather. These re¬ 
ports are sent from the weather 



Cabbages grow in the mountains in August 
— late cabbages. They are shipped to 
warmer sections. 


bureau of the government. In 
all sections of Virginia there are 
weather bureaus. They send out 
warnings when a killing* frost is 
coming*. If they think that a 
heavy rain or a dry spell is com¬ 
ing, they will tell farmers about 
this. Each weather bureau keeps 
a record of the weather. You can 
go to a weather bureau and find 






NATURE’S GIFTS TO VIRGINIA 


1G9 


out what kind of day it was on 
each day of every year for years 
back — whether there was rain, 
fog, snow or sleet, and whether 
it was hot or cold. 

The Story the Waves Told 

“Doesn’t the river seem 
happy,” said Ethel to Robert, as 
the two children sat on the beach 
and watched the little waves. 
Robert gazed across the wide 
mouth of the river before he 
spoke. 

“It certainly does,” he an¬ 
swered. 

Swish, swish, swish, went the 
little waves as they lapped the 
sand on the beach. 

“I do believe the waves are 
talking!” cried Ethel. “They 
sound just like they are saying 
something.” 

“We are, we are, we are,” said 
the waves. “If you will listen, 
we will tell you a wonderful 
story.” 

“We will listen!” cried both 
children together. “Do tell us!” 

“All right,” said the waves. 
“We have travelled a long dis¬ 
tance and are quite out of breath. 
Rut all of us together, we are 


sure, can tell you the whole 
story.” 

“Not long ago we were up in 
the mountains. But we were not 
waves then; we were rain drops. 
After we had fallen from the 
clouds we went rushing down 
the side of a giant mountain. On 
our wav we heard the thunder- 

•i' 

ing voices of the mountains as 
they talked to one another. 

“One mountain, named Chim¬ 
ney Rock, was saying to another 
mountain, named Eagles’ Nest: 
‘Do you remember ever hearing 
of old Round Knob?’ ^No,’ re¬ 
plied Eagles’ Nest. ‘What is the 
story?’ 

’ “ ‘Well, old Round Knob once 
lived with other giants down 
where the rivers now are. One 
day he and his companions began 
a game of tenpins. They used 
as balls huge boulders, and the 
tenpins were the trees. As thev 
played, the trees fell before the 
boulders bv the thousands. 

“ ‘The sun became very angry 
because he liked to warm the 
trees and to talk to them. So he 
called upon the clouds to help 
him to punish Round Knob and 
his companions for destroying 


110 


OUR AOROIXIA 


the trees. He told the clouds 
that they must drench the moun¬ 
tains: he told his cousin, Heat- 
under-the-earth, that he must 
help him punish the mountains. 
He also called upon the lig'ht- 
nin^‘ and the wind. They all 
promised to help him. 

“ ‘We must run these had 
mountains away!’ said the sun. 

“ ‘Where shall we run them?’ 
asked the clouds. 

“ ‘Down into the ocean,’ re¬ 
plied the sun. 

“So one day, thousands of 
years a^'o, the sun, the clouds, 
the heat under the earth, and the 
wind commenced to punish 
Round Knob and his companions. 
Idle rain came down in torrents 
and commenced to wash away 
the tops and sides of the moun- 
lains. The lig-htniny era bed 
against the rocks. The heat 
under the earth pushed and 
pushed: the wind blew and blew. 

“ ‘After many, many years of 
such punishment, the mountains 
became terrified. They ran off 
to live with the ocean. The 
ocean was g'lad to see them, be¬ 
cause they brought food with 
them for his fish. 


“ ‘Finally, the sun, the clouds, 
the heat under the earth, the 
lig'htning', and the wind stopped 
their punishment. They found 
that Round Knob and his com¬ 
panions had fled and left behind 
them some hills, islands, and 
peninsulas. 

“ ‘The ocean, however, was 
curious' to find out what it looked 
like up where the mountains had 
come from. So he sent for his 
messeng'er, salt water, and told 
him to i>*o find the best way for 
him to o-et there. Salt water set 
out with a rush up the rivers, and 
drowned their mouths as he went. 
Salt water is still tryino* to ^'et 
where the mountains came from, 
but he hasn’t yet g'otten any fur¬ 
ther than the falls.’ 

“You children and all you 
folks in \dro-inia should be very 
g'lad that the ocean is trying* to 
do this, because he has made wide 
and deep rivers for your boats, 
places to catch fish and oysters, 
and a fine harbor for your com¬ 
merce. 

“Good-bye. \\T" are now g'o- 
ing* down to the ocean with the 
tide.” 

“When are vou coming* back?” 

•r O 


NATURE'S (Rl^TS TO MRCENIA 


111 


asked the children. 

“It will be a long* time/’ said 
the waves. ”We may stay with 
the ocean; but after awhile we 
are sure that the sun will take 
us up to the clouds. Then the 
wind will take us back up to the 
mountains where we were some 
time ag'o. These mountains are 
\'ery happy g-iants; and instead 
of destroying- trees by playing- 
tenpins, they pki}’ merrily w'th 


the trees day by day. So do the 
sun, the clouds, and the wind. 

^^Good-bye, children!” cried 
the waves. '‘We reall}” must be 
g'oing- now. The mouth of the 
river is calling- to us to run on 
with the tide.” 

“Good-bye!” cried Ethel and 
Robert. “That was a fine story 
you told us. Maybe some day 
we will g-o up and see the hap])y 
mountains, too.” 



112 


OUR VIRGINIA 





Tlie Capitol Building and the Capital City. 












CHAPTER XIII. 


GOX^ERXAIENT AND POPULATION 


Thomas Jefferson, who was 
the third president of the United 
States, lived at Monticello, in 
Piedmont Virginia. At one time 
he was governor of Virginia. 

Since Thomas Jeff'ersbn died, 
the railroad, the telegraph, and 
hundreds of other things have 
been invented. There are now 



The statue of Thomas Jefferson 
at the University of Virginia. 


so many people in Virginia that 
roads have to be built, birds and 
fish have to be protected, crip¬ 
pled children have to be taken 
care of, and many other things 
have to be done. Just as you 
have to obey your father, mother, 
and teacher, so every one in 
Virginia must obey the govern¬ 
ment. The g'overnment makes 
laws that railroads must be safe, 
that we must not kill birds, that 
we must not be cruel to animals, 
that we must take care of crip¬ 
pled children and old soldiers, 
that children can not work in 
factories until they are sixteen 
years old, and that we must have 
pure milk and food. These are 
some of the laws or rules that 
are made in Richmond, the capi¬ 
tal of the state. 

The government of Virginia is 
for all of us. Laws are rules for 
all alike. We must obev them 
because it is best for everybody. 
When we travel over our state, 





114 


OUR \1RGINIA 


we can see a court house in every 
county. In all, there are one 
hundred county court houses. 
This is where the people are 
tried who do not keep the laws. 

Ry making laws, the state 
helps us in many ways. It tries 
to protect us by laws from 
disease. Farmers must not sell 
cows for beef which are 
diseased. Dairymen must keep 
their cows and stables clean. All 
food sold to cities must he clean. 
You and your neighbor must be 
•vaccinated a g a i n s t smallpox. 
dTose who have contagious dis¬ 
eases are not' allowed to go 
among other peo])le and spread 
them. Schools and other public 
buildings must be kept clean. 

There are places where the 
state takes care of the insane, 
epileptics, the deaf, dumb, and 
blind. It also takes care of people 
who are helpless with tuberculo¬ 
sis. Crippled children are given 
free treatment by our state. 

Schools and Colleges 

George W a s h i n g t o n and 
Thomas Jefferson did not live to 
see children of Virginia going to 
public schools. But they told the 


people of Virginia that they 
should have pultlic schools. 
Thomas Jefferson started the 
University of Virginia. He said 
that some day public school pupils 
would be going to this university. 
Thomas Jefferson wanted the 
whole tvorld to know that he was 
the father of the University of 
X^irginia. He Itegg'ed the state 
to l)uild this university so that 
everybody in \^irginia would 
have a chance to learn abo'ut 
science, bo(4vS, and govern¬ 
ment. He knew that we needed 
wise men to make laws in 
Richmond, the capital. He hoped 
the University of Virginia would 
be a great school where X^irgin- 
ians would come to learn and then 
go away and help the state bv 

being good citizens. This is ex- 

• 

actly what has happened. High 
school pupils now g*o to the 
University of X^irginia by the 
thousands. 

The University of X^irginia is 
not the only college which the 
state owns and to which jtublic 
school ])upils may go at little 
cost. .\t Blacksburg- is the X^. P. 
r., \vhere men can learn to be 
farmers. At Lexington is the 


G0\^E1<XMENT AND POPULATION 


115 



\\ Al. L, where men can learn to 
l^e soldiers and eno'ineers. At 
Williamsburg- there is the College 
(U* A illiain and Mary, v hich is 
next to the oldest college in 
America. There are four schools 
where people learn to teach, 
ddiese are called Normal Schools. 
One is at Erederickshnrg, one 
at Radford, one at Farmville, and 
and one at Harrisonburg. Like 
the public schools, these schools 
are free to \h*rginians. 

In the public schools of the 
state there are more than 
500,000 children and 15,000 
teachers. 

Ifight meml)ers of the .State 
Hoard of Ifducation ha\-e charge 


of the many pupils'dn the public 
schools. One of the laws which 
the people of Virginia now have 
to ol)ey is to send all children to 
school every year from the time 
they are seven to the time they 
are fourteen years old. This is a 
new law. What has happened to 
make the people want a law like 
this?. There are almost two hun¬ 
dred thousand people in Vh’r- 
ginia who can not read or write. 
Many of these are colored people. 
Some lived so far apart and the 
roads were so l)ad that they have 
never had a chance to go to 
school. Soon there ^vill he no 
people in Virginia who can 
neither read nor write. 




116 


OUR VIRGINIA 


Population 

Ill all the state there are 
2,300,000 people. More people 
live in Tidewater and in Middle 
Virg-inia than in any other sec¬ 
tion, In Tidewater and Middle 
Virginia the houses and farms 
are close together. There are 
large cities where people'live in 
crowded streets. In Piedmont and 
in the Valley of Virginia there 
are about fifty people to the 
square mile. In the Appalachian 
mountains there are about 
twenty people to the square mile. 



A lime plant which is owned by the state. 


There are few colored people 
in the mountains. One third of 
all the people of our state are 
colored people. Many of our 
people had great-grandfathers 


and great-grandmothers who 
were English, Irish, Scotch, and 
Germans. In Middle Virginia, 
near Petersburg, there are about 
3,000 Bohemian and Slovak far¬ 
mers. These people came to 
farm on some of the land which 
Virginians had long ago deserted. 
There are millions of acres of 
this land, especially in Middle 
V^irginia which foreigners may 
some day want to buy. 

Public Works 

The state builds the main 
roads. It not only builds these 
roads, but it also keeps them up. 
The state has built a capitol 
building in Richmond. This is 
where the General Assembly 
meets and makes laws. The state 
has also built a home for the 
governor and a skyscraper office 
building in Richmond. In this 
building and in the capitol some 
people who work for the state 
have offices. The governor’s 
office is in the capitol building. 
Virginia has a home for old Con¬ 
federate soldiers. She also has 
two lime plants where limestone 
rocks are ground into lime and 
sold to farmers at cost. 




CHAPTER XIV. 


CONCLUSION 


Recreation 

Because the climate is so mild 
and pleasant in Virginia, boys 
and girls have a lot of fun. For 
nine months in the year they can 
play out in the open without be¬ 
ing bothered with the cold. When 
children in the North are having 
ice and snow, those in Virginia 
may be in the sunshine playing 
games, riding*, or roller-skating. 
Sometimes, during the winter 
months, there is snow and ice in 
Virginia; then children enjoy 
sleighing and sometimes ice 
skating. 

In our state are thousands of 
acres of wooded land and forests 
as well as cleared fields where 
people go to hunt rabbits, rac- 
coons, opossums, deer, and 
birds. In Tidewater Virginia, 
shooting ducks, which come 1)y 
the thousands to the bays and in¬ 
lets, is great sport for hunters. 

But when people go hunting 
they must go during the hunting 
season. Virginia makes laws to 


protect game, and this is one of 
the laws. If people were allowed 
to hunt whenever they wanted 
to, there would soon be no game 
for anybody to shoot. The De¬ 
partment of Game and Inland 
Fisheries has charge of making 
people keep laws about hunting 
and fishing. 

Many people also enjoy fish¬ 
ing. In Tidewater Virginia there 
is more and better fishing than 
anywhere else in the state. In 
the rivers, lakes, and streams 
of other sections of our state 
there are bass, perch, trout, and 
other fish to delight fishermen. 

Thousands of people go to 
summer resorts at the seashore. 
Besides fishing and bathing, 
there is boating. Merry parties 
can be seen in sail boats, row 
boats, launches, and steamers. 
Not only do the people who live 
in Tidewater enjoy the seashore, 
but also people who live in other 
sections of our state go there. 
Some spend their vacations while 


118 


OUk X'lkClIXIA 


others g'o on an excursion just for 
a few days. 

Our people also go to the manv 
mountain summer resorts to en¬ 
joy horseback riding, ‘^hiking,^’ 
tramps through the woods, and 
hshing. Where there are lakes 
and rivers they also g'o bathing 
and boating. 

Because our cities are neither 
many nor larg*e, the people who 
live in them can get out in the 
country wdthout much trouble. 
In large cities like Chicago and 
New York there are some chil¬ 
dren who have never seen a farm; 
and the only cows thev have ever 
seen are in picture l)ooks. We are 
not yet crowded and jammed in 
cities, where we have to burn 
gas or electric lights on hnVht 
days in order to see. \W' can ])e 
out in the onen ha\'ing a good 

I 1 O tr' 

time., .. 

, ' I . 

OVe can travel from one place 
to another without much trouble 
and in a short time, because of 
our railroads, car lines, and auto¬ 
mobiles. So these help us to 
have a good time. In visiting 
different ])laces, our young folks 
can play and romp, while our 
older folks can enjoy golf or 


tennis or hunting foxes, deer, 
wild turkeys, and ducks. 

While we enjoy all of these 
thing's, we are kept healthy by 
doing them. We should be 
thankful that we have the sea¬ 
shore, mountains, rivers, valleys, 
rich soil, and hue climate, for 
these make it possible for us to 
have all the fun we do have. 

Churches 

fn our state we have the verv 
best chance to hear the good and 
true. Preachers and teachers 
come to our churches and halls 
to tell us about the g'ood and 
true. Churches of all kinds are 
in our state. And so all of us 
have the chance to listen. 

In old \^irginia, the early 
people — our great-grandfathers 
and great-grandmothers — were 
glad that they could worship 
God as thev wanted. But thev 
could not do this in England. 
The King of England made them 
worship in his church. Thomas 
Jefferson was proud that he 
could say that the people of Vir¬ 
ginia could worship God as they 
wished. So it was that Virgin- 
ians, for more than two hundred 



CONCJ.USlOX 


119 


years, have learned to 1)e religious 
and to go to church. Now one 



Sr. John's chiirrh, where Patrick Henry 
made a famous speech for onr liberty. 

half of the people g'o to Ilaptist 
churches, one-fourth to Alethod- 
ist churches, and one-fourth to 
Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, 
Episcopal, and other kinds of 
churches. Churches are found 
everywhere in the state where 
])eoi)le live. The state of \^ir- 
ginia does not make laws about 
religion. 



The Confederate Museum, once the 
White House of the Confederacy. 


Art 

The men who go around to sell 
machinery, toys, automobiles, 
and other things in Virginia will 
tell you that it is a “good” state. 
1)V this they mean that the 
people of Virginia have money 
to buy what they have to sell. 

The people of Virginia buy 
other things than machinery, 
toys, and automobiles. They erect 
statues of their heroes. Flowers 
and shrubs are planted in the 
])arks. There are art galleries 
where beautiful pictures are 
hung. On the inside and outside 
of public buildings there are 
handsome pillars and casts and 
beautiful windows and stairways. 
X^irginia wants her people to see 
and love the beautiful. 

Music 

Our ])eople can hear hne music. 
In music halls g'reat choruses of 
people sing and instruments are 
])layed. There are churches with 
their choirs and organs, theatres 
and motion picture houses with 
their good orchestras, ])arlors 
\vith their violins and pianos 
])layed by hoys and girls who-have 
lieen taught hv g'ood musicians. 










120 


OUR VIRGINIA 



The home of Thomas Nelson Page, who 
wrote books about Virginia and the South. 

Literature 

In the cities there are public 
libraries. From these libraries 
city people get all the good books 
they Avant to read. The State 
Library, in Richmond, sends 
books into every county in the 
state. Many noted writers have 
lived in Virginia. Many are now 
living here. 

Science 

The farmer has to know how 
to take care of the ground. We 
have seen that if tobacco is 
planted every year on the same 
land, the ground gets so poor that 
it is not fit to grow anything on. 
But it can be made to grow some¬ 
thing. Good farmers know how 
to put the ground in good con- 



What science does for us. Inventions which 
help us get pure milk and food. 


dition, and how to keep it in 
good condition. 

The government helps the far¬ 
mers. Thev can send some of 

m/ 

the soil to the Department of 
Agriculture and it will tell them 
what the soil will grow best and 
what it needs to help make things 
grow. Our state also helps the 
farmers to get good seeds to 
plant and in many other ways. 
The state has a college where 
boys who want to be farmers 
may go. It is called the Virginia 
Polytechnic Institute, or the 
V. P. L, for short. After a boy 
who wishes to be a farmer gets 
through the high school he may 
go to this college and learn to be 
a farmer. 








CONCLUSION 


121 


Doctors are always trying* to 
find better ways to protect health 
and to fight disease. Engineers 
are building streets and roads, 
setting* our parks, laying pipes, 
and doing many other useful 
things. Scientists are teaching* 
and showing* people the best and 
safest ways to run their dairies 
and to have pure food. 

Doctors, chemists, engineers, 
and scientists are all busy helping 
to make Mrg*inia an even happier 
place in which to live. 

Our state observes as holidays 
the birthdays of two great Vir¬ 
ginians—Robert E. Lee, on Jan¬ 
uary 19, and George Washington, 
on February 22. Both these men 



Arlington, 

the home of Robert E. Lee. 


were born in Westmoreland 
County, in Tidewater. 

Virginia is called the “Mother 
of Presidents,” because it is the 
birthplace of Washington, Jeffer¬ 
son, Madison, Monroe, William 
Henry Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, 
and Woodrow Wilson. Virginia 
is also called the “Mother of 
vStates” because the Old North¬ 
west Territory, West Virginia, 
and Kentucky were once within 
her boundaries. Besides this, 
most of the other land now in 
the United States was gained by 
great Virginians like Jefferson 
and Monroe while they were 
presidents of our country. 



Mount Vernon, 

the home of George Washington. 







122 


OUR VIRUINIA 


Well may it l)e said about ouv state: 

The roses nowhere bloom so white 

As in \b’rg'inia; 

The sun no^yhere shines quite so brig'ht 

As in \^irginia; 

The birds sing* nowhere quite so s\veet, 

And nowhere hearts so lightly beat, 

]^"or heaven and earth both seem to meet 

Down in Virginia. 

The days are never quite so long 

As in \drginia; 

Nor (juite so filled with happy song 

As in \"irginia; 

And when my time has come to die. 

Just take me back and let me lie 

Close where the Rlue Ridge mounts on high 

Down in Virginia. 

There is nowhere a land so fair 

As in Virginia; 

So full of song, so free of care 

As in Virginia; 

And I believe that happy land 

The.T.ord prepared for mortal man 

Is l)uilt exactly on the \)\'c\n 

Of old Virginia. 






r 

























